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Nanoplastics exacerbate the arsenic intestinal toxicity through oxidative stress, apoptosis and circadian rhythm disruption
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Tiny plastic particles (nanoplastics) can team up with arsenic — a toxic metal sometimes found in food and water — to damage intestinal cells far more than either one does alone, according to lab and animal experiments. The smallest plastic particles caused the worst harm, triggering cell damage, inflammation, and disruptions to the body's internal clock in gut tissue. This matters because most safety testing looks at pollutants one at a time, so real-world exposure to combined contaminants like this could pose a bigger health risk than currently assumed.
Nanoplastics (NPs) can act as carriers to adsorb arsenic in the environment, and forming stable composite pollutants. These pollutants can enter the human intestinal tract through food chain. The co-exposure of NPs and As may lead to a synergistic toxic effect, thereby increasing the potential threat to intestinal health. Therefore, this study investigated the potential effects of As and different sizes (20, 50, 200 and 500 nm) polystyrene nanoparticles (PS NPs) when exposed alone or in combination on Caco-2 cells and the intestinal tract. The results indicate that at the concentration where neither PS NPs nor As exposure alone have a significant impact on cell viability. The co-exposure of PS NPs-As resulted in a significant synergistic toxic effect. Among then, 20 and 50 nm PS NPs-As can more significantly promote the release of LDH, and has a more prominent effect on the integrity of the Caco-2 cells membrane. The 50 nm PS NPs-As specifically enhanced the generation of ROS. The ELISA results confirmed that the synergistic effect promotes cell apoptosis by regulating the Bax / Bcl-2 ratio and activating the Caspase-3 protein. In addition, the in vivo experiments further demonstrated that the co-exposure of PS NPs-As caused more severe intestinal structural damagen and triggered enrichment pathway transformation. The specific manifestations include the enrichment of immune suppression, inflammatory apoptosis, PPAR signaling pathway, and NOD-like receptor pathway, as well as the aggravation of circadian rhythm disorders. This study elucidates that the co-exposure of different sized PS NPs-As can lead to synergistic toxicity. Among them, the small sized PS NPs-As exhibit a stronger ability to cause intestinal damage. This finding reveals that ignoring the combined effect of composite pollution in real environments may seriously underestimate the health risks of NPs.
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Nanoplastics aggravate the toxicity of arsenic to AGS cells by disrupting ABC transporter and cytoskeleton
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Researchers investigated how polystyrene nanoplastics of various sizes affect the toxicity of arsenic in human gastric cells. They found that while nanoplastics alone at noncytotoxic concentrations did not harm cells, they significantly enhanced arsenic accumulation and toxicity by disrupting cell membrane integrity, damaging the cytoskeleton, and inhibiting ABC transporter activity. The study highlights that nanoplastics can aggravate the harmful effects of co-occurring environmental contaminants even at concentrations previously considered safe.
Combined toxicity of co-exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics and arsenic on the gut-liver axis in mice.
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Mice exposed to both nanoplastics and arsenic together, common pollutants that can show up in food and water, suffered worse gut and liver damage than expected, including a weakened gut barrier, disrupted gut bacteria, and increased inflammation. This suggests that real-world exposure to multiple pollutants at once may pose greater health risks than studying each one alone would predict.
Integration of physiology, microbiota and metabolomics reveals toxic response of zebrafish gut to co-exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics and arsenic
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Researchers exposed zebrafish to arsenic combined with polystyrene nanoplastics and found that the nanoplastics significantly increased arsenic accumulation in the gut, by up to 77% at the higher dose. The combined exposure caused more oxidative damage and greater disruption to gut bacteria and metabolism than arsenic alone. This study shows that nanoplastics can make other environmental pollutants more dangerous by helping them accumulate in the digestive system.
Nanoplastics and Arsenic Co-Exposures Exacerbate Oncogenic Biomarkers Under an in Vitro Long-Term Exposure Scenario
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This lab study examined whether nanoplastics combined with arsenic — a naturally occurring toxic element — had greater cancer-promoting effects than either contaminant alone. The combination worsened multiple cancer-related biomarkers in human cells over long-term exposure. The findings raise concerns about the health consequences of nanoplastic exposure in environments where multiple pollutants are present simultaneously.
Ingested Polystyrene Micro-Nanoplastics Increase the Absorption of Co-Ingested Arsenic and Boscalid in an In Vitro Triculture Small Intestinal Epithelium Model
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Researchers used an advanced intestinal cell model to study whether ingesting polystyrene micro-nanoplastics alongside environmental pollutants like arsenic and boscalid changes how those contaminants are absorbed. They found that the presence of microplastics significantly increased the intestinal uptake of both co-ingested pollutants. The study suggests that microplastics may act as carriers that enhance human exposure to other harmful chemicals through the diet.
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