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Ecotoxicological effects of emerging pollutants (nanomaterials and microplastics) on fish biology
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This review compiles current knowledge on how emerging pollutants including nanomaterials and microplastics affect fish biology, covering impacts on physiology, behavior, and molecular function. Researchers highlight that advanced methods like genomics and micro-CT imaging are revealing new details about how these pollutants damage fish at the cellular and tissue level. The study underscores the growing threat these contaminants pose to aquatic ecosystems and the fish species within them.
Emerging contaminants, including heavy metals, nanomaterials, microplastics, and industrial chemicals pose significant threats to aquatic ecosystems and fish health. The emerging pollutants are majorly produced during industrial processes, urbanization, and mining. This review study compiled current knowledge on the ecotoxicological effects of these pollutants on fish biology, encompassing physiological, behavioral, and molecular responses. Innovative methodologies have been used to comprehensively assess toxicological responses, such as high-throughput omics, including transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics can elucidate molecular-level disruptions. In addition, advanced bioimaging techniques e.g., micro-CT scanning can assess internal tissue damage caused by pollutants non-invasively. Furthermore, eco-epidemiological models integrating field and laboratory data will enhance predictive risk assessments. Regulatory frameworks must evolve to incorporate sublethal and chronic toxicity endpoints, ensuring more comprehensive environmental protection strategies. Collaborative efforts among researchers, policymakers, and industries are essential to mitigate contamination sources and develop sustainable remediation approaches for aquatic ecosystems.
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Chemical contaminants and fish: implications for health and ecosystem sustainability
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Researchers reviewed ecotoxicological effects of aquatic contaminants on fish, highlighting that microplastics and nanomaterials join heavy metals, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals in disrupting immune and neurological function, and that emerging tools such as omics technologies and machine learning now offer improved frameworks for assessing and managing these threats.
Toxicity of nano- and microplastics on marine and freshwater fish: A multi-scale perspective from organ systems to cells
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This review pulls together existing studies showing that tiny plastic particles (micro- and nanoplastics) can build up in fish, damaging their gut, gills, heart, brain, and immune system by causing inflammation and cellular stress. While this research was done in fish, it matters for us too, since these plastics are widespread in water and seafood, and fish share many biological similarities with humans, meaning our bodies could face similar risks from ongoing plastic exposure.
Toxicological Research on Nano and Microplastics in Environmental Pollution: Current Advances and Future Directions
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This review summarizes existing research on how nano- and microplastics from our massive global plastic production enter aquatic environments, absorb harmful chemicals, and move through food chains into living organisms. Studies show these particles can cause brain damage, disrupt metabolism, trigger inflammation, and produce harmful oxidative stress in aquatic species, with microplastics even detected in commercial fish that people eat.
Microplastics Induced Dysfunctions in Physiology and Behavior of Fish: A Comprehensive Review.
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Researchers comprehensively review how microplastics disrupt fish physiology, documenting effects on growth, blood chemistry, reproduction, oxidative stress, immune function, and behavior — tracing mechanisms from gastrointestinal damage and endocrine disruption to neurotoxicity and transgenerational harm — to inform ecological risk assessment in aquatic and fisheries contexts.
Toxicological assessment of nanoparticles and microplastics
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This review examines the toxicological effects of nanoparticles and microplastics on aquatic organisms, summarizing mechanisms of harm including oxidative stress, inflammatory responses, DNA damage, tissue injury, and neurological disruption in fish. It highlights that secondary nanoplastics formed from macro- and microplastic degradation are more heterogeneous than primary particles, and that combined exposure with chemical pollutants amplifies toxicity, including the capacity to cross the blood-brain barrier in fish.
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