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An Edible Biohybrid Platform Accomplishes In Situ Fenton-Mediated Enteral Nanoplastics Aging and Excretion
Original title: An Edible Biohybrid Platform Accomplishes In Situ Fenton‐Mediated Enteral Nanoplastics Aging and Excretion
Summary
Scientists have created an edible mix of plant compounds, iron, and gut bacteria that clumps tiny plastic particles together in your intestines, making them too big to pass through your gut wall and enter your bloodstream. In mouse tests, this "biohybrid" blocked over 96% of nanoplastics from being absorbed and reduced gut inflammation and damage, suggesting a potential future supplement to help flush out plastic particles we accidentally eat before they can harm our bodies. More research is needed to confirm it works safely in humans, but it's a promising early step toward reducing the health risks of the microplastics we're const
ABSTRACT Ingested nanoplastics (NPs) readily translocate across the intestinal barrier due to their small size, posing a pervasive threat to human health. Current mitigation approaches, constrained to environmental water purification or postexposure injury alleviation, entail unavoidable NPs ingestion or organism damage. Effective strategies to impede NPs internalization at the lumen stage and promote safe elimination remain limited. Here, an edible biohybrid platform, composed of a natural polyphenol reductant, redox‐active ferric ions, and H 2 O 2 ‐generating Enterococcus faecalis , is developed to trap NPs within the intestine. The platform enables persistent in situ generation of hydroxyl radicals in the intestine through Fenton reactions, accelerating the oxidative aging and subsequent NP agglomeration into micrometer‐scale clusters that exceed the physiological pore‐size limit of intestinal barrier. In an in vitro intestinal barrier model, the platform achieved a 96.02% NPs clearance efficiency within 24 h. Daily oral co‑administration effectively blocked NP penetration into lamina propria, alleviated intestinal inflammation, tight‑junction disruption, and mucosal damage in mice, as well as a protective effect further corroborated by the diminished NP fluorescence in C. elegans . Validated with both polystyrene and polypropylene NPs, this strategy of directed regulation of intestinal NP behaviors offers a green and generalizable approach to combat the NP exposure hazards.