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The impact of nanomaterials on autophagy across health and disease conditions
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Researchers examined how nanomaterials — including nanoplastics — interact with autophagy, the cell's internal recycling and cleanup system. Depending on the type and dose, nanoplastics can either trigger helpful cellular defense responses or push cells toward self-destruction, a dual nature that has important implications for both environmental health and the design of nanomaterial-based medicines.
Autophagy, a catabolic process integral to cellular homeostasis, is constitutively active under physiological and stress conditions. The role of autophagy as a cellular defense response becomes particularly evident upon exposure to nanomaterials (NMs), especially environmental nanoparticles (NPs) and nanoplastics (nPs). This has positioned autophagy modulation at the forefront of nanotechnology-based therapeutic interventions. While NMs can exploit autophagy to enhance therapeutic outcomes, they can also trigger it as a pro-survival response against NP-induced toxicity. Conversely, a heightened autophagy response may also lead to regulated cell death (RCD), in particular autophagic cell death, upon NP exposure. Thus, the relationship between NMs and autophagy exhibits a dual nature with therapeutic and environmental interventions. Recognizing and decoding these intricate patterns are essential for pioneering next-generation autophagy-regulating NMs. This review delves into the present-day therapeutic potential of autophagy-modulating NMs, shedding light on their status in clinical trials, intervention of autophagy in the therapeutic applications of NMs, discusses the potency of autophagy for application as early indicator of NM toxicity.
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Biological Modulation of Autophagy by Nanoplastics: A Current Overview
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This review examines how nanoplastics interfere with autophagy, the cell's natural recycling and cleanup process. While cells initially activate autophagy to deal with nanoplastic particles, prolonged exposure can overwhelm this system, leading to cell damage and death. Understanding this process is important because it may explain how long-term nanoplastic exposure contributes to tissue damage and disease in humans.
Autophagic response of intestinal epithelial cells exposed to polystyrene nanoplastics
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Researchers found that polystyrene nanoplastics accumulate in the cytoplasm of intestinal epithelial cells, impairing autophagic flux and triggering an autophagic stress response confirmed in both cell and animal models.
Hazard Assessment of Polystyrene Nanoplastics in Primary Human Nasal Epithelial Cells, Focusing on the Autophagic Effects
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Researchers exposed primary human nasal epithelial cells to polystyrene nanoplastics of two sizes and found that the smaller particles caused more significant cellular changes, including activation of autophagy pathways. The nanoplastics triggered oxidative stress and altered cell processes related to waste recycling within cells. The study highlights the potential health risks of inhaling airborne nanoplastics, an exposure route that remains understudied.
Micro- and nanoplastics remodel the autophagy-lysosomal axis and mitochondrial function in primary human monocytes
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Scientists found that when human immune cells (monocytes) engulf tiny plastic particles, it disrupts the cells' internal "cleanup crew" (a process called autophagy) and damages their energy-producing mitochondria, with smaller plastic particles (0.5-1 micron) causing more harm than larger ones. This matters because monocytes are frontline defenders in your immune system, so if microplastics are impairing how they function and produce energy, this could have knock-on effects for immune health over time, though more research is needed to understand the long-term consequences.
The Immunotoxic Effects of Environmentally Relevant Micro- and Nanoplastics
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Researchers characterized the immunotoxic effects of over 20 types of micro- and nanoplastic particles on macrophages and dendritic cells, finding that physicochemical properties such as size, shape, polymer type, and surface oxidation strongly influence immune cell responses.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.