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The gut microbiota: A key player in cadmium toxicity - implications for disease, interventions, and combined toxicant exposures
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This review examines how cadmium, a toxic heavy metal found in contaminated soil and water, damages health partly by disrupting gut bacteria. The connection to microplastics is significant because microplastics are known to absorb and carry heavy metals like cadmium, potentially increasing our exposure to these toxins and compounding the damage to our gut health.
Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic heavy metal contaminant found in soil and water due to human activities such as mining and industrial discharge. Cd can accumulate in the body, leading to various health risks such as organ injuries, osteoporosis, renal dysfunction, Type 2 diabetes (T2DM), reproductive diseases, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers. The gut is particularly sensitive to Cd toxicity as it acts as the primary barrier against orally ingested Cd. Even at low concentrations, Cd can cause oxidative stress, inflammation, and intestinal bleeding. Cd also disrupts the gut microbiota, affecting its structure, taxonomic composition, and metabolic functions. Cd exposure alters the structure of the gut microbial community, reducing diversity and upregulating certain phyla and genera. This disturbance can lead to physiological and metabolic imbalances, including disruptions in energy homeostasis, amino acid, lipid, nucleotide, and short-chain fatty acid (SCFAs) metabolism. The effects of Cd on the gut microbiota depend on the duration of exposure, the dose of Cd, and can vary based on sex and age. Cd-induced gut dysbiosis has been linked to various diseases, including diabetes, adiposity, atherosclerosis, liver damage, infections, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Interventions targeting the gut microbiota, such as probiotics, specific diets, melatonin, selenium, vitamin D3, and certain compounds, have shown potential in reducing the health risks associated with Cd exposure. However, combined exposure to Cd and other toxicants, such as microplastics (MPs), heavy metals, and antibiotics, can amplify the toxicity and dysbiosis in the gut microbiota.
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Co-exposure with cadmium elevates the toxicity of microplastics: Trojan horse effect from the perspective of intestinal barrier
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When mice were exposed to both microplastics and the toxic metal cadmium together, the health damage to their intestines and liver was significantly worse than exposure to either pollutant alone. The microplastics acted like a "Trojan horse," carrying cadmium past the gut barrier and increasing its accumulation in the body, while also disrupting the gut microbiome.
Behaviour, ecological impacts of microplastics and cadmium on soil systems: A systematic review
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This systematic review examines how microplastics and cadmium interact in soil, finding that they can make each other more harmful. Microplastics can carry toxic cadmium further through soil and increase its uptake by plants, which could mean more heavy metal contamination in the food we eat.
Combined exposure to microplastics and cadmium alters gut microbiota composition in preschool children: A cross-sectional study
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A cross-sectional study of preschool children found that combined exposure to microplastics and cadmium was associated with altered gut microbiota composition. The findings suggest that dietary co-exposure to these two contaminants has joint effects on early-life gut health beyond what either pollutant causes alone.
Interactions between environmental pollutants and gut microbiota: A review connecting the conventional heavy metals and the emerging microplastics
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This review examines how environmental pollutants, including both heavy metals and microplastics, interact with gut bacteria in humans and animals. The authors found that these pollutants can disrupt the balance of gut microbiota, which may contribute to various health problems, and that gut bacteria can also transform pollutants in ways that change their toxicity.
Microplastic co-exposure elevates cadmium accumulation in mouse tissue after rice consumption: Mechanisms and health implications
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In a mouse study, eating cadmium-contaminated rice alongside common microplastics led to 17-38% more cadmium accumulating in body tissues than eating the rice alone. The microplastics changed gut bacteria composition, which increased cadmium solubility and transport across the intestinal wall. This is directly relevant to human health because both microplastics and cadmium are common contaminants in rice, and their combined exposure may increase toxic metal absorption.
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