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Microplastics, the gut microbiome and ageing: mechanisms and intervention strategies.
Summary
This review pulls together existing research showing that tiny plastic particles we breathe, eat, and absorb through our skin may disrupt the gut microbiome (the community of bacteria living in our digestive system), which in turn can speed up aging and raise the risk of conditions like heart disease and brain decline. The particles seem to trigger inflammation and cellular damage that harm the body over time, though this paper doesn't present new experiments—it summarizes what scientists already know and suggests possible ways to reduce plastic exposure and its health effects. The takeaway: cutting down on microplastic exposure could be one more tool for supporting heal
As a pervasive global environmental concern, micro- and nanoplastic (MNPs) pollution leads to widespread systemic human exposure via three main routes: oral ingestion, inhalation, and dermal absorption. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that MNPs are strongly associated with ageing and age-related pathologies, including cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. Meanwhile, the gut microbiome, an intensely studied regulatory mediator, plays a critical role in modulating human ageing. This review systematically summarizes the routes of human exposure to MNPs and their mechanistic links to human ageing. It delineates the interplay among MNPs, the gut microbiome and human ageing, and elucidates how the MNPs-gut microbiome Axis drives oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, cellular senescence, and mitochondrial dysfunction, disrupts epigenetic modulation, and activates core ageing-related pathways such as TLR4/NF-κB, ultimately exacerbating systemic inflammation and organ dysfunction. Furthermore, this review proposes multi-pronged intervention strategies, providing a scientific basis for mitigating MNPs pollution and its associated health risks, and offering novel theoretical insights for the development of anti-ageing interventions.