Toxicity of polymer-modified CuS nanoclusters on zebrafish embryo development

Despite the vast amount of research on the toxicity of copper-based nanoparticles, the toxicity of CuS nanoparticles is still largely unknown. Due to the application of CuS-based nanomaterials in biomedical engineering, it is necessary to study their potential toxicity and biological effects. In this study, we evaluated the toxicity of polymer-modified CuS nanoclusters (PATA3-C4@CuS) on embryo development through exposing zebrafish embryos to 1, 2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10 mg/L PATA3-C4@CuS at 0.75-h post-fertilization. The morphological results demonstrated that PATA3-C4@CuS at concentrations greater than 1 mg/L PATA3-C4@CuS induced abnormal phenotypes including smaller heads and eyes, pericardial edema, and epiboly retardation and it increased mortality, lowered the hatching rate, and inhibited swim bladder inflation. In situ hybridization and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction showed that PATA3-C4@CuS could alter the expression patterns of tbxta, dlx3, and cstlb and increase the expression levels of wnt5 and wnt11, which suggested that PATA3-C4@CuS disrupts cell migration by increasing the levels of wnt5 and wnt11 during gastrulation. It was also discovered that PATA3-C4@CuS exposure caused a slow heart rate and smaller ventricles in zebrafish larvae. Immunofluorescence and behavioral analyses showed that PATA3-C4@CuS could damage the ventral projection of the primary motor neurons CaP, which was in accordance with the reduction in locomotion ability. Together, our data demonstrated that functional PATA3-C4@CuS could disrupt cell migration during gastrulation, affect cardiac development and function, and decrease locomotive activity.