Neurotoxic effect of non-functionalized carbon nanospheres

Objective. Different types of nanoparticles, including carbon ones, were tested for a variety of biological applications. Alongside with promising results, some undesired side effects were disclosed. Most biological studies were performed on highly functionalized carbon nanospheres, so the main objective of this study was to assess cytotoxicity of unfunctionalized carbon nanospheres synthetized by sol-gel method. We hypothesize that unfunctionalized material will present different cytotoxic pattern on cell culture. Methodology. 3 carbon nanosphere materials were synthetized by sol-gel method. Particles shape, size and functionalization were assessed. Cytotoxic effect of synthesized materials was evaluated on SH-SY5Y cell line using XTT and crystal violet assays and imaging. Contribution. In this work we have demonstrated that cytotoxic effect of carbon nanospheres can be attenuated by varying the conditions of synthesis.