Towards Nano-Risk Assessment With High Throughput Screening and High Content Analysis: An Intelligent Testing Strategy

The emerging field of nanoscience and nanotechnology is potentially important for the growth of the economy, but it is also imperative to think through its possible environmental and health hazards. There is an urgent need to adopt a robust strategy for quick safety evaluation of Nanomaterials (NM’s) across a wide range of biochemical responses. These NM’s are new age materials which are having dimensions in nanoscale region viz, 1 to 100 nm. High-throughput screening (HTS) and high-content analysis (HCA) for nano risk assessment allows multiparametric testing for various NMs on different types of model systems at different concentrations that efficiently saves time and cost. The mechanism based high-throughput (HT) in vitro analysis approach are increasing efficacy for making safety decisions by replacing laborious animal studies from pathway-based testing in cell lines. HTS/HCA approaches describe a technique by which multiple endpoints can be analyzed at a time that facilitates classification of important biological markers at the nano-bio interface. Herein we will discuss various HT approaches that have been developed in respect to study safety aspects of NMs such as omics based methods (transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics), HT flow cytometry, impedance-based monitoring and genotoxicity through HT comet assay and image-based HCS. Insights gained from HTS/HCS and should aim to deepen our fundamental understanding of NMs hazards as well as to assist in developing the safer by design approach. Moreover, it is necessary to gain insights into the large dataset to decipher the biological meaning and for this purpose, we have discussed various data analysis software employed to make predictions and the improvement of structure activity relationship for concerned NMs.