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Circular RNA signatures associated with nanoplastics-induced healthspan alterations in C. elegans

Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 2026

Summary

Researchers exposed Caenorhabditis elegans to nanoplastics early in life and found persistent transcriptional changes and circular RNA dysregulation that mirrored molecular signatures of physiological aging, positioning circRNA alterations as sensitive biomarkers of nanoplastic-induced healthspan impairment.

BACKGROUND: Nanoplastics have emerged as ubiquitous environmental contaminants with the capacity to perturb diverse biological processes, including organismal aging. However, the molecular underpinnings connecting nanoplastic exposure to healthspan modulation remain largely unknown. RESULTS: exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Early-life nanoplastic exposure disrupts healthspan through persistent transcriptional and circRNA alterations that recapitulate molecular signatures characteristic of physiological aging. These findings highlight circRNA dysregulation as a sensitive biomarker for nanoplastics-induced healthspan impairment and provide new insights into how environmental nanoplastics influence aging processes.

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