Francesco Turci

University of Turin | UNITO · Dipartimento di Chimica

Significance Silica particles with a population of nearly free silanols damage cellular membranes and initiate inflammatory reactions. Nearly free silanols are found on the surface of both fractured quartz and amorphous silica particles, and their occurrence initiates the toxicity of silica, thus revisiting the ancient paradigm whereby crystallinit...

Exposure to natural occurrences of asbestos (NOA) and other potentially hazardous elongated mineral particles (EMPs) may pose a risk to human health and the environment. Weathering forces and anthropic activities may alter the cohesion of NOA-bearing outcrops and disperse EMPs in air, water, and soil. The current paradigm for fibre toxicity indicat...

Introduction: In the next few years, NASA, ESA and other space agencies will embark on renewed crewed exploration of the Moon, to advance the ability of humans to live and work in extreme environments, and to answer broad scientific questions related to the history of the Solar System. In particular, NASA’s Artemis Program, with involvement from ES...

Inhaled crystalline silica causes inflammatory lung diseases, but the mechanism for its unique activity compared to other oxides remains unclear, preventing the development of potential therapeutics. Here, the molecular recognition mechanism between membrane epitopes and “nearly free silanols” (NFS), a specific subgroup of surface silanols, is iden...

This study focuses on the design of a new Ti based multicomponent amorphous alloy for the development of biocompatible implant materials with enhanced hemocompatibility and cytocompatibility. While this class of amorphous alloys has shown its potential for biomedical implant applications, there are major concerns due to the presence of elements suc...

Industrial processing of quartz (SiO2) and quartz‐containing materials produces toxic dust. Fracturing quartz crystals opens the Si‒O bond and produces highly reactive surface species which mainly react with molecules like water and oxygen. This surface‐reconstruction process forms silanol (Si‒OH) on the quartz surface, which can damage biological...

The underlying mechanisms of asbestos-related autoimmunity are poorly understood. As the size, surface reactivity, and free radical activity of asbestos particles are considered crucial regarding the health effects, this study aims to compare the effects of exposure to pristine amosite (pAmo) or milled amosite (mAmo) particles on lung damage, autoi...

While exposure to long amphibolic asbestos fibers (L > 10 µm) results in the development of severe diseases including inflammation, fibrosis, and mesothelioma, the pathogenic activity associated with short fibers (L < 5 µm) is less clear. By exposing murine macrophages to short (SFA) or long (LFA) fibers of amosite asbestos different in size and su...

The study of molecular recognition patterns is crucial for understanding the interactions between inorganic (nano)particles and biomolecules. In this review we focus on hydroxyls (OH) exposed at the surface of oxide particles (OxPs) which can play a key role in molecular initiating events leading to OxPs toxicity. We discuss here the main analytica...

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The environmental impact of natural occurrences of asbestos (NOA) and asbestos-like minerals is a growing concern for environmental protection agencies. The lack of shared sampling and analytical procedures hinders effectively addressing this issue. To investigate the hazard posed by NOA, a multidisciplinary approach that encompasses geology, miner...

The natural occurrence of asbestos and asbestos-like minerals (NOA) poses a risk to the environment and human health, notably when natural processes and anthropic activities promote fibre dispersion. Hundreds of potentially hazardous elongated mineral particles (EMPs, NIOSH 2011 definition) exist, and their toxicological profile is often unknown. W...

Crystalline silica (CS) is a well-known human carcinogen and freshly fractured CS is strongly held to be more toxic than aged dust. Mechanical fracturing indeed generates on CS surface a specific family of Nearly-Free Silanols (NFS), a moiety that was proved to destabilize cell membranes and initiate inflammation in vivo. During milling, silica nan...

Respirable crystalline silica (RCS) is the leading cause of occupational respiratory diseases worldwide. RCS is associated with inflammatory lung reactions, which can lead to silicosis, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. The extreme variability of silica specimens, including its amorphous forms, the surface heterogeneity, and variable toxicity effect...

Volcanic ashes can threaten the human respiratory system through inhalation. In this study we investigated the physical and chemical characteristics of volcanic ashes from the Pomici di Avellino (PdA) eruption, an Early Bronze Age (ca. 3.9 ka) Plinian event from Somma-Vesuvius volcano, southern Italy, whose wide dispersal affected most of the Itali...

This paper sheds light on syn-exhumation, pervasive cataclastic processes occurred on competent serpentinites of a metaophiolitic sub-unit of the Voltri Massif. The reported data highlight the importance of the compositional and structural heterogeneities within the ophiolite-bearing exhumation channels, since the observed pervasive cataclastic pro...

As urbanization and industrialization is growing at unprecedented rate, the global production of Municipal solid waste (MSW) and waste in general is constantly increasing. The management of waste and the technological solutions adopted have a direct impact on the health of the people and the environment. Leaching of transition metal ions, permeatio...

This paper summarizes recent insights into causal biological mechanisms underlying the carcinogenicity of asbestos. It addresses their implications for the shapes of exposure-response curves and considers recent epidemiologic trends in malignant mesotheliomas (MMs) and lung fiber burden studies. Since the commercial amphiboles crocidolite and amosi...

Asbestos occurrence has been mainly monitored in air so far and only limitedly considered in other matrices, such as water. Waterborne asbestos could originate from natural or anthropogenic sources, leading to non-conventional exposure scenarios. It could be a secondary source of airborne asbestos in case of water-to-air migration, particularly in...

Although epidemiological studies have suggested an association between asbestos exposure and systemic autoimmunity, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Short asbestos fibers are often considered less harmful than long fibers but such a statement is still a matter of debates. This study aimed to compare the effects of short (SFA) and lo...

Crystalline silica (CS) is a well-known hazardous material that causes severe diseases including silicosis, lung cancer, and autoimmune diseases. However, the hazard associated to crystalline silica is extremely variable and depends on some specific characteristics, including crystal structure and surface chemistry. The crystalline silica polymorph...

Occupational exposure to quartz dust is associated with fatal diseases. Quartz dusts generated by mechanical fracturing are characterized by a broad range of micrometric to nanometric particles. The contribution of this nanometric fraction to the overall toxicity of quartz is still largely unexplored, primarily because of the strong electrostatic a...

Exposure to asbestos and asbestos-like minerals has been related to the development of severe lung diseases, including cancer and malignant mesothelioma (MM). A high incidence of non-occupational MM was observed in New Caledonia (France) in people living in proximity of serpentinite outcrops, containing chrysotile and fibrous antigorite. Antigorite...

Herein, silicate and borosilicate bioactive glasses are synthetized and characterized. The antioxidant activity, in the presence and absence of human osteoblasts’ progenitor cells, of the different glass compositions, is correlated to the surface properties: wettability, zeta potential, hydroxylation degree, reactivity in simulated body fluid (SBF)...

Chrysotile asbestos is a carcinogenic mineral that has abundantly been used in industrial and consumer applications. The carcinogenicity of the fibers is partly governed by reactive Fe surface sites that catalyze the generation of highly toxic hydroxyl radicals (HO•) from extracellular hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Chrysotile also contains Cr, typicall...

Occupational exposure to quartz dust is associated with fatal diseases. Quartz dusts generated by mechanical fracturing are characterized by a broad range of micrometric to nanometric particles. The contribution of this nanometric fraction to the overall toxicity of quartz is still largely unexplored, primarily because of the strong electrostatic a...

Layered silicates (LS, clays) are a composite group of minerals whose industrial interest and technological applications are progressively expanding, spanning from catalysis to biomedicine. However, the compatibility of LS with biological systems is not clear, and mechanistic data about biophysicochemical interactions at the interface of LS and bio...

Volcanic ashes from the Pomici di Avellino (PdA) eruption, an Early Bronze Age (ca. 3.9 ka BP) Plinian event from Somma-Vesuvius, had a wide dispersal area including most of the Central-South regions of Italy. The finest fraction of volcanic ashes can impact the human respiratory apparatus and induce severe respiratory difficulties and pathologies....

Asbestos inhalation is associated with fatal respiratory diseases and raises concerns from the perspective of workplace safety and environmental impacts. Asbestos and asbestos-like minerals naturally occur in rocks and may become airborne when outcrops or soils are disturbed by anthropic activities. In situ detection of these minerals is a crucial...

In Naturally Occurring Asbestos (NOA) rich areas, water flows through asbestos bearing rocks and soils and generates waterborne fibres that may migrate in air and become a risk for humans. Research on the migration and dispersion after water vaporisation has been so far only marginally evaluated. This study investigates the migration in air of asbe...

To understand the interactions between mineral particles and living organisms and the possible effects on the human health, we need to investigate both the mineral characteristics and the transformations they undergo after deposition within the organism. Among various mineral powders, respirable silica can represent a good model for the study of th...

The Fenton process activated by Zero Valent Iron (ZVI-Fenton) is shown here to effectively remove antibiotics reserved for hospital settings (specifically used to treat antibiotic-resistant infections) from wastewater, thereby helping in the fight against bacterial resistance. Effective degradation of cefazolin, imipenem and vancomycin in real urba...

Bioactive glasses are the materials of choice in the field of bone regeneration. Antioxidant properties of interest to limit inflammation and foreign body reactions have been conferred to bioactive glasses by the addition of appropriate ions (such as Ce or Sr). On the other hand, the antioxidant activity of bioactive glasses without specific ion/mo...

Naturally-Occurring Asbestos (NOA) may constitute a severe health risk when metamorphic rocks are excavated for large infrastructure projects. For public acceptance, a reliable assessment of the content of NOA is necessary for the design of the construction site, workers' safety, and spoil management. Direct measurements of NOA content can be made...

Thermo-gravimetric analysis coupled to time/temperature-resolved FTIR spectroscopy of evolved gases was used to measure the vinyl alcohol units content in EVOH copolymer. Pure homopolymers were used as references. The quantitative analysis here proposed is based on the calculation of integral profiles relative to FTIR signals of water molecules evo...

Anatase titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) are used in a large range of industrial applications mainly due to their photocatalytic properties. Before entering the lung, virtually all TiO2 NPs are exposed to some UV light, and lung toxicity of TiO2 NPs might be influenced by photoexcitation that is known to alter TiO2 surface properties. Alth...

Treatments to reduce the leaching of contaminants (chloride, sulfate, heavy metals) into the environment from bottom ash (BA) are investigated, as a function of the ash's particle size (s). The aim is to make BA suitable for reuse as secondary raw material, in accordance with the legal requirements. Such treatments must be economically feasible and...

Due to their ability to penetrate, deteriorate and discolour stone surfaces, rock-inhabiting black fungi represent a remarkable issue for cultural heritage conservation. Black microcolonial fungi (MCF) can also adapt to different environmental conditions, by converting from yeast-like morphology to a peculiar meristematic development with swollen c...

The pathogenicity of quartz involves lysosomal alteration in alveolar macrophages. This event triggers the inflammatory cascade that may lead to quartz-induced silicosis and eventually lung cancer. Experiments with synthetic quartz crystals recently showed that quartz dust is cytotoxic only when the atomic order of the crystal surfaces is upset by...

The concern about titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs) toxicity and their possible harmful effects on human health has increased. Their biological impact is related to some key physicochemical properties, i.e. particle size, charge, crystallinity, shape, and agglomeration state. However, the understanding of the influence of such features on T...

The aim of this work is to develop high‐performance adhesives to join carbon fiber reinforced composites (C/C) for use in aerospace applications; in order to guarantee sound mechanical strength, a low coefficient of thermal expansion, and ease of application on large components. Several different adhesive formulations, based on phenolic or cyanate‐...

This contribution describes a geodatabase structure designed to manage a large amount of geo-environmental data for the "Gronda di Genova" highway by-pass tunnels in Liguria region (Italy). In particular, an innovative dataset structure founded on an explicit conceptual model was designed to represent the distribution of petrofacies containing Natu...

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is an innovative anticancer approach, based on the excitation of a given molecule (usually a porphyrin) by inertial acoustic cavitation that leads to cell death via the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This study aims to prepare and characterize nanosystems based on porphyrin grafted carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs),...

This study discloses the morphological and chemical-structural modifications that occur during thermal degradation of amphibole asbestos. Low-iron tremolite and iron-rich crocidolite were heated at temperatures ranging from r.t. to 1200 °C. Heating promoted a complex sequence of iron oxidation, migration and/or clustering and, finally, the formatio...

Background The pathogenicity of quartz involves lysosomal alteration in alveolar macrophages. This event triggers the inflammatory cascade that may lead to quartz-induced silicosis and eventually lung cancer. Recently, we showed that synthetic quartz induces membrane lysis in red blood cells and cytotoxic responses in murine alveolar macrophages, o...

Asbestos may constitute a severe health risk when meta-ophiolites are excavated for large infrastructural projects. For public acceptance, a reliable estimation of the content of Naturally Occurring Asbestos (NOA) is necessary for the design of construction sites, workers' safety and spoil management. In the framework of a research project supporti...

Background: Li-ion batteries (LIB) are used in most portable electronics. Among a wide variety of materials, LiCoO2 (LCO) is one of the most used for the cathode of LIB. LCO particles induce oxidative stress in mouse lungs due to their Co content, and have a strong inflammatory potential. In this study, we assessed the mutagenic potential of LCO p...

Abstract Background Silica continues to represent an intriguing topic of fundamental and applied research across various scientific fields, from geology to physics, chemistry, cell biology, and particle toxicology. The pathogenic activity of silica is variable, depending on the physico-chemical features of the particles. In the last 50 years, cryst...

The presence of naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) in many areas worldwide requires an enhanced geological risk evaluation to ensure workplace safety from asbestos during large construction projects. Due to the complexity of the geological risk definition, health and safety regulations for working with asbestos-bearing materials are often not enfor...

For a reliable evaluation of the geo-environmental risk due to naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) during rock excavation of large infrastructure projects, a proper procedure is needed. First, it is necessary to provide a detailed geological model tailored to the NOA-related issues that should drive the rock sampling procedures in order to obtain a...

The rising awareness about the risk due to asbestos environmental exposure has led to a new interest in the investigation of non-regulated mineral fibers. Evidence of chronic diseases has been described in individuals exposed to naturally occurring asbestiform (NOA) minerals in Turkey (erionite), Italy (fluoro-edenite), and the United States (winch...

Fe-based materials are considered for the manufacture of temporary implants that degrade through the corrosion of Fe by oxygen. Here we document the generation of hydroxyl radicals (HO) during this corrosion process, and their deleterious impacts on human endothelial (ECs) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in vitro. The generation of HO was documented...

Realization of large geo-engineering projects in rocks containing naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) must address several crucial geo-environmental issues, including the design of the construction site, the enforcement of health protection measures and the environmentally responsible spoil management. This leads to a compelling need to develop effe...

The development of a new generation of ultra-sensitive sensors for analytical and bio-diagnostic devices requires a strong signal in front of very small quantity of analyte, often present in complex and interfering matrix. Taking advantage of peculiar plasmonic properties of nanoporous gold (NPG), a promising sensor for selective detection of Human...

The environmental hazard raised by naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) during construction project, mining or tunneling in asbestos-rich natural areas is a major concern for workplace safety and environment protection agencies (Turci et al., 2016; Bloise et al., 2017). To estimate correctly the risk associated to NOA, new analytical tools to quantif...

Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS) is the only affordable analytical technique that can discriminate both morphology and elemental composition of inorganic fibers. SEM-EDS is indeed required to quantify asbestos in confounding natural matrixes (e.g. ophiolites), but is also time-consuming, operator dependent,...

Iron and its role as soul of life on Earth is addressed in this review as iron is one of the most abundant elements of our universe, forms the core of our planet and that of telluric (i.e., Earth-like) planets, is a major element of the Earth's crust and is hosted in an endless number of mineral phases, both crystalline and amorphous. To study iron...

Humic substances are poorly known, though they represent a major pool of non-biotic organic carbon on earth. In particular, there is little knowledge on the formation of humic substances by irradiation of organic matter dissolved in waters. Specifically, it is known that humic substances can be formed from proteins by photochemical processes in sur...

Surface reactivity of a fibrous tremolite sample from Castelluccio Superiore (Italy) was investigated by means of free radical generation following incubation in H2O2 solution buffered at pH 7.4, for several time points, ranging from 1 day to 1 month. Results obtained were compared with those of another fibrous tremolite sample (from Maryland, USA)...

Among asbestos minerals, fibrous riebeckite (crocidolite) and tremolite share the amphibole structure but largely differ in terms of their iron content and oxidation state. In asbestos toxicology, iron-generated free radicals are largely held as one of the causes of asbestos malignant effect. With the aim of clarifying i) the relationship between F...

Among the physico-chemical features responsible for the so-called “variability of quartz hazard”, a key role has been assigned to the silica surface charge, evaluated by means of ζ potential measurement. The ζ potential of silica describes the protonation state of silanols which, in turn, determine interactions with cell membranes. To gain a molecu...