Journal
NANOMEDICINE
Volume 9, Issue 4, Pages 483-499Publisher
FUTURE MEDICINE LTD
DOI: 10.2217/NNM.13.221
Keywords
biomineralization; calcifying nanoparticles; calcium granules; calcium homeostasis; carbonate apatite; ectopic calcification; fetuin-mineral complexes; mineral nanoparticles; nanobacteria; nanotoxicology
Funding
- Primordia Institute of New Sciences and Medicine
- Chang Gung University [EMRPD100351]
- Chang Gung Medical Research Program [CLRPD1C0011]
- Ming Chi University of Technology [0XB0]
- National Science Council of Taiwan [NZRPD1B0462]
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Nanobacteria have been at the center of a major scientific controversy in recent years owing to claims that they represent not only the smallest living microorganisms on earth but also new emerging pathogens associated with several human diseases. We and others have carefully examined these claims and concluded that nanobacteria are in fact nonliving mineralo-organic nanoparticles (NPs) that form spontaneously in body fluids. We have shown that these mineral particles possess intriguing biomimetic properties that include the formation of cell-and tissue-like morphologies and the possibility to grow, proliferate and propagate by subculture. Similar mineral NPs (bions) have now been found in both physiological and pathological calcification processes and they appear to represent precursors of physiological calcification cycles, which may at times go awry in disease conditions. Furthermore, by functioning at the nanoscale, these mineralo-organic NPs or bions may shed light on the fate of nanomaterials in the body, from both nanotoxicological and nanopathological perspectives.
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