• ciclodestrine (cyclodextrins)
• danno genetico e cromosomico in organismi sentinel
• Nanomateriali per la bonifica ambientale (Nanomate
• nanospugne cellulosiche (cellulose-based nanospong

Most countries face serious enviromental problems regarding maintaining and restoring the quality of air, water and soil. In many cases, conventional remediation treatments show limited results in reducing levels of pollutants. Nanotechnology seems to be a promising solution in approaches to remediation (nanoremediation). Nanotechnology is related to interdisciplinary use of particles and structures at the nanoscale (<100nm in any dimension). The aim of the following work is to consider the potential use of cellulose and dextrine-based nanomaterials in nanoremediation, on their possible use to limit toxic substances actions in water environment (substances like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals in particular). This work is part of a project (NanoBonD) involving research partners (University of Pisa, Florence, Siena, polytechnic of Milan, Turin) and ‘Acque Industriali’ company. In vitro/in vivo experiments were conducted using Mytilus galloprovincialis gills byopsies samples as an ideal sea enviroment bioindicator. The Comet assay in its alkaline version (pH≥13) was used to measure a reversible genetic alteration on isolated cells. This test allows us to estimate DNA single strand breaks, double strand breaks and alkali-labile sites. DNA strand breakage is a well-known biomarker of genetic toxicity in environmental monitoring and cytome assay, including micronucleated cells evaluation was also performed. This test highlights a permanent, fixed DNA damage, which can be due to the action of toxic agents with clastogen or aneuploidogen properties. It is a widely used genotoxicity biomarker, which provides an accurate measure of DNA damage resulting in chromosomes breakage or their mis-segregation through mithosis. Indeed, it is applied to detect nuclear abnormalities (blebs, buds, nucleoplasmic bridges, ecc…) and micronuclei presence, potentially correlated with the exposure to toxic agents able to interact directly with the DNA or with cellular and nuclear structure, i.e. spindle apparatus, cytoskeleton or nuclear membrane. Experiments have focused on measuring any potential genotoxic action of the nanomaterials synthesized specifically for the NanoBonD project, which should be potentially applied for the nanoremediation. Artificial seawater (ASW) treated with nanomaterials was used to expose mussels. Once identified an adequate nanomaterial batch, subsequent experiments focused on exposing mussels to polluted waters treated with nanomaterials were performed in order to measure any protective and/or toxic potential effect of these materials. Results show that elutriates treated with nanomaterials damage biological systems. They show genotoxic action for reasons that have to be further investigated in order to proceed to in situ investigations. These nanomaterials have been synthetized by using biologically compatible materials (cellulose nanofibers and cyclodextrins) so the genotoxic action revealed is probably related to the nanomaterial synthesis processes or maybe to the resulting polymer properties. It is proposed to synthetize new nanosponge batches using different reagents or processes and further investigations are needed in order to perform new in vivo studies.