Toxicological Effects of Nanoparticles on Aquatic Snail Health

Aquatic snails occupy essential ecological niches and serve as sensitive bioindicators of nanoparticle pollution in freshwater ecosystems. Increasing use of engineered nanomaterials such as silver, selenium, zinc oxide and copper oxide has prompted extensive investigation into their impacts on gastropod physiology and survival. Nanoparticles can be taken up via ingestion and across respiratory epithelia, leading to bioaccumulation in digestive and reproductive tissues. Internalised particles often provoke oxidative stress, enzyme dysregulation and damage to hermaphrodite and digestive glands, resulting in reduced growth, reproductive output and embryo malformations. Chronic and transgenerational exposures further reveal persistent alterations in offspring performance, emphasising the need for refined risk assessment and regulatory frameworks. Practical applications of this research include the development of snail-based monitoring programmes and the design of molluscicidal agents with minimal non-target effects.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have revealed that zinc oxide nanoparticles show greater teratogenic potency than bulk zinc oxide during embryonic development of freshwater snails. Exposed veliger larvae exhibit a range of malformations—including shell deformities, cell lysis and exogastrulation—and significant shifts in oxidative biomarkers. Nano-sized zinc oxide provokes more pronounced oxidative stress, depleting protein and lipid reserves while raising glycogen levels. Alterations in protein synthesis patterns further indicate interference with developmental gene expression. These findings demonstrate that nanoparticle-specific physicochemical properties, rather than dissolved ions alone, drive the heightened toxicity observed in snail embryos.

Toxicological Effects of Nanoparticles on Aquatic Snail Health publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in toxicological effects of nanoparticles on aquatic snail health across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Bioaccumulation: The progressive build-up of substances in an organism’s tissues over time, often leading to toxic concentrations.

LC50: The concentration of a toxicant at which half of a test population dies within a specified exposure period, used to gauge acute toxicity.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS): Highly reactive molecules derived from oxygen that can damage lipids, proteins and DNA when overproduced.

Teratogenicity: The capacity of a substance to cause developmental malformations or birth defects during embryogenesis.

References

1. Histopathological, Immunohistochemical, Biochemical, and In Silico Molecular Docking Study of Fungal-Mediated Selenium Oxide Nanoparticles on Biomphalaria alexandrina (Ehrenberg, 1831) Snails. Microorganisms (2023).
2. Chronic and transgenerational effects of silver nanoparticles in freshwater gastropod Lymnaea stagnalis. Chemosphere (2022).
3. Assessment of molluscicidal and larvicidal activities of CuO nanoparticles on Biomphalaria alexandrina snails. Beni-Suef University Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences (2022).
4. Evaluation of the teratogenic potency of bulk zinc oxide and its nanoparticles on embryos of the freshwater snail, Helisoma duryi. Scientific Reports (2024).