Aggregation State of Metal-Based Nanomaterials at the Pulmonary Surfactant Film Determines Biophysical Inhibition.

Metal-based nanomaterials (MNMs) represent a large category of the engineered nanomaterials, and have been extensively used to enhance the electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of nanoenabled consumer products. Inhaled MNMs can penetrate deeply into the peripheral lung at which they first interact with the pulmonary surfactant (PS) lining of alveoli. Here we studied the biophysical inhibitory potential of representative MNMs on a modified natural PS, Infasurf, using a novel in vitro experimental methodology called the constrained drop surfactometry (CDS). It was found that the biophysical inhibitory potential of six MNMs on Infasurf ranks in the order Ce