Evaluation of the effects of zinc oxide (ZnO NPs) nanoparticles synthesized by green synthesis on Caenorhabditis elegans

In recent years, the rapid development of nanotechnology has caused the products obtained with this technology to be used more daily. Information on the effects of these products, which provide great advantages in every respect, on human health and the environment is insufficient. It has been suggested that these nanoparticles may have toxic effects on living things, mostly in animal experiments and cell cultures. In this paper, the organism Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), which contains a genome and biochemical ways highly similar to humans, is used to understand and reveal the metabolism of Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) toxicological effects. The toxicological effects of ZnO NPs on C. elegans organisms were investigated and the results were evaluated in terms of environment and human health. C. elegans was exposed to commercial ZnO NPs and green synthesized ZnO NPs from Olea europaea (olive tree, OLE). LC50 values were determined by probit analysis (green synthesized ZnO NP LC50(24h) = 84.97 mg/L, LC50(72h) = 33.27 mg/L, commercial ZnO NPs LC50(24h) = 5.75 mg/L, LC50(72h) = 1.91 mg/L). When the survival times of C. elegans were evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method, it was seen that commercial ZnO NPs were more toxic than green synthesized ZnO NPs. In MTT tests, it was clearly seen that commercial ZnO NPs and green synthesized ZnO NPs entered the cell and caused different cytotoxicity. While there was a difference between control and 0.5, 2.5, 5, 10, 25, and 50 mg/L doses in commercial ZnO NP applications, there were significant differences between control and 25, 50 mg/L concentrations in green synthesized ZnO NP applications.