Separation and preparation of nanoparticles of urban dust for biological studies

Nanoparticles (NPs) of urban dust pose a potential threat to public health. Nevertheless, this issue remains largely unexplored due to a lack of biological research related to these NPs. This may be attributed to the complexity of the separation, characterization, analysis, and subsequent preparation of NPs of urban dust for biological studies. In the present work, the methodology for the separation and preparation of NPs of urban dust for biological assays has been developed. The isolation of NPs from bulk samples of urban dust has been carried out using coiled tube field-flow fractionation, which allows one to recover a fraction of NPs, which is sufficient for further research. The weight of the recovered fraction of NPs was 0.42 ± 15 mg; the mean size of particles in the fraction was 220 nm. Albumin was employed as a stabilizing agent for NPs, a phosphate buffer solution simulated physiological salt concentrations. The isolated NPs were found to contain microorganisms, and a sterilization procedure was therefore applied. A 5 min UV treatment ensured sterilization of the suspension of NPs. Ultrafiltration was used to pre-concentrate NPs of urban dust required for biological studies; the ultrafiltration procedure did not affect the stability of the NPs suspension. The concentrations of toxic elements like Cu, Zn, As, Mo, Cd, Sn, Sb, Hg, Pb and Bi in the obtained NPs were found to be up to 10 times higher than in the bulk dust samples, indicating a potential health threat. The proposed procedure for the separation and preparation of NPs of urban dust can serve as a reliable basis for further biological studies.