journal article·2026-01-09Open access

Large-Scale Meta-Analysis of Nanomaterials Toxicity Based on Natural Language Processing of Scientific Articles

Amauri J. Paula, Romana Petry, James M. Almeida, André A. Caetano, José Sales, Odair P. Ferreira, Diego S. T. Martinez, Henry J. Kobs, Andreia F. Faria

ACS Applied Nano Materials· Volume 9· Issue 1

Abstract

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Natural language processing (NLP) pipelines can mine the nanotoxicology literature at a scale and resolution that cannot be achieved by manual curation. Here, we established a NLP pipeline that coupled topic modeling and end point-specific extraction LLM prompts to convert ∼10 6 sentences extracted from abstracts of scientific articles into a structured knowledge base containing 13 nanotoxicology features. The pipeline is capable of analyzing and extracting nanomaterial descriptors such as size, ζ potential, and surface area, along with biological end points such as minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) and lethal concentration 50% (LC 50 ). Statistical convergence across multiple quantitative end points - MIC, MBC, microbial log reduction, and biofilm killing efficiency - shows that Ag-based nanomaterials are the most potent antimicrobial agents, showing lower MIC and MBC than ZnO, TiO 2 and Au analogs. This trend was also observed for individual pathogens such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus . Most nanomaterials are within 1 to 100 nm, with nanoparticles featured in >80% of the studies. Although nanomaterials <50 nm often produce the lowest MIC and LC 50, toxicity within a single size class spans orders of magnitude, underscoring the influence of surface chemistry, coatings, and colloidal behavior. In addition, adverse reproductive effects in Caenorhabditis elegans and Daphnia magna, and developmental abnormalities in Danio rerio, are predominantly related to Ag and TiO 2 . In general, our automated data extraction and the curation strategy transforms disparate literature into a machine-readable knowledge base that paves the way for data-driven predictions of nanomaterial hazards.
Source: openalex_inverted_index · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Nanoparticles: synthesis and applications · Biomedical Text Mining and Ontologies · Computational Drug Discovery Methods

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Solid-Biological Interface Group (SolBIN)

Aeronautics Institute of Technology - ITA

Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano)

Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM)

Ilum School of Science

Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials (LaMFA), Department of Chemistry

State University of Londrina (UEL)

Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment, Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences

University of Florida

Funding

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico · Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo · National Science Foundation

References (78)

Show source-provided references
1. 10.3390/molecules2501011210.3390/molecules25010112 ↗
2. 10.1038/s41573-020-0090-810.1038/s41573-020-0090-8 ↗
3. 10.1039/D0MA00807A10.1039/D0MA00807A ↗
4. 10.1016/j.molliq.2022.12104610.1016/j.molliq.2022.121046 ↗
5. ISO/TS 80004–1:2015 Nanotechnologies - Vocabulary - Part 1: Core terms, https://www.iso.org/obp/ui#iso:std:iso:ts:80004:1:ed-2:v1:en; (acessed Jan 7, 2025).
6. ISO/TS 80004–2:2015 Nanotechnologies - Vocabulary - Part 2: Nano-objects, https://www.iso.org/obp/ui#iso:std:iso:ts:80004:2:ed-1:v1:en; (acessed Jan 7, 2025).
7. ISO/TS 80004–13:2017 Nanotechnologies - Vocabulary - Part 13: Graphene and related two-dimensional (2D) materials, https://www.iso.org/obp/ui#iso:std:iso:ts:80004:13:ed-1:v1:en; (acessed Jan 7, 2025).
8. ISO/TS 80004–4:2011 Nanotechnologies - Vocabulary - Part 4: Nanostructured materials, https://www.iso.org/obp/ui#iso:std:iso:ts:80004:4:ed-1:v1:en; (acessed Jan 7, 2025).
9. 10.3762/bjnano.9.9810.3762/bjnano.9.98 ↗
10. 10.3390/nano1005091710.3390/nano10050917 ↗
11. 10.1016/j.jfda.2018.01.01010.1016/j.jfda.2018.01.010 ↗
12. 10.1021/acsanm.1c0334610.1021/acsanm.1c03346 ↗
13. 10.1016/j.cis.2014.10.00710.1016/j.cis.2014.10.007 ↗
14. 10.1016/j.addr.2020.06.02210.1016/j.addr.2020.06.022 ↗
15. 10.3390/nano1007140310.3390/nano10071403 ↗
16. 10.1021/acsnano.1c0139910.1021/acsnano.1c01399 ↗
17. 10.1016/j.mseb.2021.11509510.1016/j.mseb.2021.115095 ↗
18. 10.1080/1040841X.2017.133200110.1080/1040841X.2017.1332001 ↗
19. 10.1016/j.nano.2015.11.01610.1016/j.nano.2015.11.016 ↗
20. 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2008.09.00210.1016/j.biotechadv.2008.09.002 ↗
21. 10.1016/j.jcis.2004.02.01210.1016/j.jcis.2004.02.012 ↗
22. 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.12197410.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121974 ↗
23. 10.3390/microorganisms1102036910.3390/microorganisms11020369 ↗
24. 10.1016/j.dental.2017.07.00210.1016/j.dental.2017.07.002 ↗
25. 10.3390/ijms2213720210.3390/ijms22137202 ↗
26. 10.3390/nano1002029210.3390/nano10020292 ↗
27. 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.11202710.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112027 ↗
28. 10.1016/j.eti.2020.10106710.1016/j.eti.2020.101067 ↗
29. 10.1021/acsnano.2c0012810.1021/acsnano.2c00128 ↗
30. 10.1016/j.nantod.2015.06.00610.1016/j.nantod.2015.06.006 ↗
31. 10.1166/jnn.2014.874710.1166/jnn.2014.8747 ↗
32. 10.1016/j.jfda.2014.01.00510.1016/j.jfda.2014.01.005 ↗
33. 10.1186/s11671-018-2457-x10.1186/s11671-018-2457-x ↗
34. 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2009.09.06010.1016/j.biomaterials.2009.09.060 ↗
35. 10.1016/j.impact.2017.08.00210.1016/j.impact.2017.08.002 ↗
36. 10.1016/j.aquatox.2015.11.01910.1016/j.aquatox.2015.11.019 ↗
37. 10.1016/j.impact.2015.12.00210.1016/j.impact.2015.12.002 ↗
38. 10.1007/s10462-022-10144-110.1007/s10462-022-10144-1 ↗
39. 10.1016/j.neucom.2021.05.10310.1016/j.neucom.2021.05.103 ↗
40. 10.1038/s41524-022-00734-610.1038/s41524-022-00734-6 ↗
41. 10.1080/14686996.2024.240332810.1080/14686996.2024.2403328 ↗
42. 10.1021/acs.chemmater.4c0225710.1021/acs.chemmater.4c02257 ↗
43. 10.1021/acs.chemmater.2c0044510.1021/acs.chemmater.2c00445 ↗
44. 10.1038/s43246-024-00708-910.1038/s43246-024-00708-9 ↗
45. 10.5812/ijpr-15051010.5812/ijpr-150510 ↗
46. 10.1021/acs.chemmater.1c0296110.1021/acs.chemmater.1c02961 ↗
47. 10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c0692010.1021/acssuschemeng.3c06920 ↗
48. 10.1038/s41591-023-02448-810.1038/s41591-023-02448-8 ↗
49. https://github.com/amaurijp/aRIX; (accessed Dec 14, 2025).
50. Paula, A. J. An automated domain-independent text reading, interpreting and extracting approach for reviewing the scientific literature 2021; doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2107.14638.
51. https://github.com/amaurijp/nanotox_db; (accessed Dec 14, 2025).
52. Mikolov, T.; Chen, K.; Corrado, G.; Dean, J. Efficient Estimation of Word Representations in Vector Space. 2013; doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1301.3781.
53. 10.1017/S135132492300024410.1017/S1351324923000244 ↗
54. 10.1038/s41598-024-61738-410.1038/s41598-024-61738-4 ↗
55. http://www.ollama.com; (accessed Dec 14, 2025).
56. http://www.mistral.ai; (accessed Dec 14, 2025).
57. 10.1007/s40820-015-0040-x10.1007/s40820-015-0040-x ↗
58. 10.1080/09603123.2020.180541510.1080/09603123.2020.1805415 ↗
59. 10.1016/j.jfda.2014.01.00610.1016/j.jfda.2014.01.006 ↗
60. 10.1016/j.jes.2018.06.01010.1016/j.jes.2018.06.010 ↗
61. 10.3390/nano604007110.3390/nano6040071 ↗
62. 10.3389/fchem.2020.0037610.3389/fchem.2020.00376 ↗
63. 10.1016/j.colsurfa.2022.12846510.1016/j.colsurfa.2022.128465 ↗
64. Roomi A. B. · J. Nanostruct. · 2021 · 11 · 514
65. 10.3389/ftox.2023.117848210.3389/ftox.2023.1178482 ↗
66. 10.1016/j.nantod.2022.10143010.1016/j.nantod.2022.101430 ↗
67. 10.1186/s12951-016-0217-610.1186/s12951-016-0217-6 ↗
68. 10.3389/frcrb.2023.124163710.3389/frcrb.2023.1241637 ↗
69. 10.1016/S1568-7864(02)00093-910.1016/S1568-7864(02)00093-9 ↗
70. 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.13474610.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.134746 ↗
71. 10.1016/j.jbi.2010.03.00110.1016/j.jbi.2010.03.001 ↗
72. 10.1186/s13326-015-0005-510.1186/s13326-015-0005-5 ↗
73. 10.1186/s13321-022-00669-610.1186/s13321-022-00669-6 ↗
74. 10.1016/j.csbj.2022.08.06110.1016/j.csbj.2022.08.061 ↗
75. 10.1039/C5NR08944A10.1039/C5NR08944A ↗
76. 10.1002/nano.20240011810.1002/nano.202400118 ↗
77. 10.1016/j.impact.2017.11.00210.1016/j.impact.2017.11.002 ↗
78. 10.1021/acs.chemrev.3c0007010.1021/acs.chemrev.3c00070 ↗