Chemistry and the Environment, Contributed Talk (15min)
EV-014

Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)-A promising metric linking aerosol toxicity and human health

Z. H. Zhang1,2
1Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland, 2Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK

Co-authors: E. Hartner3, A. Paul4, B. Utinger1, B. Gfeller1, M. Sklorz3, J. Schnelle-Kreis3, H. Czech3, 5, G. Jakobi3, S. Jeong3, 5, T. Gröger3, S. Offer3, 5, S. Di. Bucchianico3, T. Hohaus4, T. Adam6, A. Kiendler-Scharr4, Y. Rudich7, R. Zimmermann3, 5, M. Kalberer1

1Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland, 2Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK, 3Joint Mass Spectrometry Centre of Helmholtz Zentrum München, 81379 München, Germany, 4Forschungzentrum Jülich, IEK-8: Troposphere, Jülich, Germany, 5Joint Mass Spectrometry Centre, University of Rostock, 18059 Rostock, Germany, 6Universität der Bundeswehr München, 85579 München, Germany, 7Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
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It is being speculated that particle-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are indicative of the oxidative potential (OP) of aerosol particles, may be a promising metric to predict particle toxicity. However, accurate ROS quantification remains challenging due to the reactive and short-lived nature of many ROS components and the lack of appropriate analytical methods for a reliable quantification, which makes it difficult to gauge their impact on human health.

In this study, using a novel online particle-bound ROS instrument (OPROSI) [1], we comprehensively characterized and compared the evolution of ROS in secondary organic aerosol (SOA) generated from anthropogenic (naphthalene) and biogenic (β-pinene) precursors coated on soot particles (SP) and aging of these SOA types under varied atmospheric relevant conditions (UV lamp intensity and humidity). We systematically analysed the ability of the two aerosol types to induce the production of ROS, particle OP as measured by both acellular and cellular assays, using lung epithelial cell cultures. We further investigated multiple biological responses caused by the two aerosol types. The links among chemical and biological analyses were compared. The overall results show that compared to β-pinene-derived SOA, naphthalene (i.e., anthropogenic) SOA not only contain a higher ROS content, but also lead to a lower cell viability, higher DNA damage, and a higher oxidative stress potential. These consistent results between chemical-based and biological-based analyses indicate that ROS could be a feasible metric to link aerosol particle composition to toxicity and adverse human effects.

[1]   Francis P. H. Wragg, Stephen J. Fuller, Ray Freshwater, David C. Green, Frank J. Kelly, Markus Kalberer, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 2016, 9, 4891–4900.