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. 2019 Feb 17;20(4):865. doi: 10.3390/ijms20040865

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© 2019 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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The four main routes of cytotoxic mechanism of AgNPs. 1, AgNPs adhere to the surface of a cell, damaging its membrane and altering the transport activity; 2, AgNPs and Ag ions penetrate inside the cell and interact with numerous cellular organelles and biomolecules, which can affect corresponding cellular function; 3, AgNPs and Ag ions participate in the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) inside the cell leading to a cell damage and; 4, AgNPs and Ag ions induce the genotoxicity.