Drs. Sabo-Attwood, Lednicky and colleagues recently published an article in Particle & Fibre Toxicology showing that if lung cells are pre-exposed to carbon nanotubes, they are more susceptible to infection with influenza A virus H1N1 (A/Mexico/4108/2009). Their work is timely as nanoparticles, entities in the 1-100 nm size range, are currently unregulated while being widely utilized in numerous industrial and consumer products. Since the nanotubes share a superficial resemblance to fibers such as asbestos the research community is concerned about potential health effects as a result of inhalation exposure. Their work further shows that the nanotubes are able to impair typical anti-viral defense systems, highlighting novel mechanisms of sub-lethal toxicity.
The full article can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4318452/pdf/12989_2014_Article_66.pdf