High throughput kinetic Vibrio fischeri bioluminescence inhibition assay for study of toxic effects of nanoparticles.

Despite of the growing production and use of nanoparticles (NPs) in various applications, current regulations, including EC new chemical policy REACH, fail to address the environmental, health, and safety risks posed by NPs. This paper shows that kinetic Vibrio fischeri luminescence inhibition test--Flash Assay--that up to now was mainly used for toxicity analysis of solid and colored environmental samples (e.g. sediments, soil suspensions), is a powerful tool for screening the toxic properties of NPs. To demonstrate that Flash Assay (initially designed for a tube luminometer) can also be adapted to a microplate format for high throughput toxicity screening of NPs, altogether 11 chemicals were comparatively analyzed. The studied chemicals included bulk and nanosized CuO and ZnO, polyethylenimine (PEI) and polyamidoamine dendrimer generations 2 and 5 (PAMAM G2 and G5). The results showed that EC50 values of 30-min Flash Assay in tube and microplate formats were practically similar and correlated very well (log-logR2=0.98), classifying all analyzed chemicals, except nano CuO (that was more toxic in cuvette format), analogously when compared to the risk phrases of the EC Directive 93/67/EEC for ranking toxicity of chemicals for aquatic organisms. The 30-min EC50 values of nanoscale organic cationic polymers (PEI and dendrimers) ranged from 215 to 775 mg/l. Thirty-minute EC50 values of metal oxides varied largely, ranging from approximately 4 mg/l (bulk and nano ZnO) to approximately 100 mg/l (nano CuO) and approximately 4000 mg/l (bulk CuO). Thus, considering an excellent correlation between both formats, 96-well microplate Flash Assay can be successfully used for high throughput evaluation of harmful properties of chemicals (including organic and inorganic NPs) to bacteria.