ABSTRACT
The advancement in nanotechnology has continued to attract huge attention probably due in part to the prospects it holds for diverse applications across various fields of discipline. As a result of this, there has been increased production and usage of nanomaterials, particularly in medicine, food, agriculture, and electronics, among others. Consequently, exposure to nanomaterials has continued to rise, thus creating the need to study its safety or likely toxicity of nanoparticles. Additionally, the dearth of mechanistic knowledge of nanoparticles safety has resulted in great concerns, thus limiting their applications as diagnostic, therapeutic, and theranostic tools. In this chapter, cytotoxicity, apoptosis, autophagy, inflammation, and oxidative stress have been identified as the major mechanisms for nanotoxicity. Nanoparticles have been found to exhibit molecular, cellular, immunologic, and tissue toxicity and also environmental toxicity. Furthermore, the mechanism underlying cellular interactions by nanoparticles was appraised to further deepen our understanding of the biological effect of these nanomaterials.
