Advanced Nuclear and Related Techniques for Metallomics and Nanometallomics

Metallomics, focusing on the global and systematic understanding of the metal uptake, trafficking, role, and excretion in biological systems, has attracted more and more attention. Metal-related nanomaterials, including metallic and metal-containing nanomaterials, have unique properties compared to their macroscale counterparts and therefore require special attention. The absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion (ADME) behavior of metal-related nanomaterials in the biological systems is influenced by their physicochemical properties, the exposure route, and the microenvironment of the deposition site. Nanomaterials not only may interact directly or indirectly with genes, proteins, and other molecules to bring genotoxicity, immunotoxicity, DNA damage, and cytotoxicity but may also stimulate the immune responses, circumvent tumor resistance, and inhibit tumor metastasis. Because of their advantages of absolute quantification, high sensitivity, excellent accuracy and precision, low matrix effects, and nondestructiveness, nuclear and related analytical techniques have been playing important roles in the study of metallomics and nanometallomics. In this chapter, we present a comprehensive overview of nuclear and related analytical techniques applied to the quantification of metallome and nanometallome, the biodistribution, bioaccumulation, and transformation of metallome and nanometallome in vivo, and the structural analysis. Besides, metallomics and nanometallomics need to cooperate with other -omics, like genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, to obtain the knowledge of underlying mechanisms and therefore to improve the application performance and to reduce the potential risk of metallome and nanometallome.