Role of Nanoplastics in Decreasing the Intestinal Microbiome Ratio: A Review of the Scope of Polystyrene

Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are increasingly recognized as emerging intestinal toxicants. This scoping review maps and integrates evidence from 56 studies (47 primary and 11 review articles, 2000-mid-2025) on how nanoplastics, particularly ≤100 nm polystyrene, disrupt gut homeostasis. The evidence consistently supports a three-stage mechanistic cascade: 1. Oxidative-stress initiation-Nanoplastics generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) and suppress antioxidant defenses, producing redox imbalance in intestinal tissue and commensal bacteria. 2. Barrier dysfunction-Resulting oxidative injury reduces tight-junction proteins, depletes mucus-secreting goblet cells, and activates inflammatory signaling (NF-κB, TLR4). 3. Microbiome reconfiguration-The altered intestinal microenvironment favors Gram-negative expansion and depletion of Gram-positive commensals, observed as decreases in the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) and Gram+/Gram- ratios. High-dose nanoplastic exposures reproducibly induced these effects in mice and zebrafish, whereas environmentally realistic, low-dose PET fragments produced minimal dysbiosis. Functionally important taxa-short-chain-fatty-acid producers (Faecalibacterium, Roseburia) and mucin degraders (Akkermansia muciniphila)-were consistently reduced, linking microbial shifts to epithelial injury and inflammatory tone. Together, these findings define an oxidative-barrier-microbiome axis as the dominant pathway of nanoplastic-induced intestinal disruption. Future work should emphasize environmentally relevant exposures, multi-omics functional endpoints, and mechanistic models that integrate oxidative stress, epithelial pathology, and microbiome ecology to guide realistic human-health risk assessment.