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Simultaneous exposure to nanoplastics and cadmium mitigates microalgae cellular toxicity: Insights from molecular simulation and metabolomics
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In a surprising finding, researchers discovered that when nanoplastics and cadmium (a toxic metal) were present together at high concentrations, their combined effect on microalgae was actually less toxic than either pollutant alone. The nanoplastics appeared to bind with the cadmium, reducing its ability to enter and damage cells. While this suggests some pollutant interactions may be unexpectedly complex, it does not mean nanoplastics are protective -- the study highlights how much we still need to learn about how plastic pollution interacts with other contaminants.
In the severe pollution area of nanoplastics (NPs) and cadmium ions (Cd2+), the joint effects of their high environmental concentrations on primary producers may differ from those of low environmental doses. Thus, we investigated the physiological changes, cell morphology, molecular dynamic simulation, phenotypic interactions, and metabolomics responses of C. pyrenoidosa to high environmental concentrations of NPs and Cd2+ after 12-d acclimation. After 12-d cultivation, mono-NPs and mono-Cd2+ reduced cell density and triggered antioxidant enzymes, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) production, and cell aggregation to defend their unfavorable effects. Based on the molecular dynamic simulation, the chlorine atoms of the NPs and Cd2+ had charge attraction with the nitrogen and phosphorus atoms in the choline and phosphate groups in the cell membrane, thereby NPs and Cd2+ could adsorb on the cells to destroy them. In the joint exposure, NPs dominated the variations of ultrastructure and metabolomics and alleviated the toxicity of NPs and Cd2+. Due to its high environmental concentration, more NPs could compete with the microalgae for Cd2+ and thicken cell walls, diminishing the Cd2+ content and antioxidant enzymes of microalgae. NPs addition also decreased the EPS content, while the bound EPS with -CN bond was kept to detoxicate Cd2+. Metabolomics results showed that the NPs downregulated nucleotide, arachidonic acid, and tryptophan metabolisms, while the Cd2+ showed an opposite trend. Compared with their respective exposures, metabolomics results found the changes in metabolic molecules, suggesting the NPs_Cd2+ toxicity was mitigated by balancing nucleotide, arachidonic acid, tryptophan, and arginine and proline metabolisms. Consequently, this study provided new insights that simultaneous exposure to high environmental concentrations of NPs and Cd2+ mitigated microalgae cellular toxicity, which may change their fates and biogeochemical cycles in aquatic systems.
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Researchers examined the combined toxicity of microplastics, nanoplastics, and cadmium on the freshwater alga Microcystis aeruginosa. The study found that while cadmium alone was most toxic, the combination of plastics and cadmium produced synergistic harmful effects, with nanoplastics causing greater cadmium release and more severe disruption to algal cell membranes than microplastics.
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Researchers studied freshwater algae exposed to both cadmium and polystyrene nanoplastics in the lab. Combined exposure caused more growth problems, oxidative damage and cell structure disruption than cadmium alone, even though cells did not accumulate more cadmium, with gene and metabolite changes pointing to disrupted metal handling, membranes and nutrient processing.
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