Rare-earth oxide (REO) nanoparticles interfere with a mechanism called autophagic flux in biological cells by inhibiting several important cellular processes but quartz nanoparticles and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) appear to have no adverse effects on autophagy (a process in which cells seem to “self-digest” in the presence of stressors). This new finding, from researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles and the California NanoSystems Institute, could be important for preventing inflammatory diseases such as lung fibrosis and treating cancer in its early stages. Artificially enhancing autophagy using REOs might even be used to help in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases by removing unwanted aggregated proteins and mitochondria and so allow more neurons to survive……
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/58888