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The synergic toxicity of temperature increases and nanopolystrene on zebrafish brain implies that global warming may worsen the current risk based on plastic debris

The Science of The Total Environment 2021 39 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 50 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Ekrem Sulukan, Alper Baran, Onur Şenol, Onur Şenol, Serkan Yıldırım, Ahmet Mavi, Hacer Akgül Ceyhun, Emine Toraman, Saltuk Buğrahan Ceyhun

Summary

Researchers combined a 1°C water temperature increase with polystyrene nanoplastic exposure in zebrafish and found synergistic disruption of circadian rhythms, brain metabolomics, and behavior — with Raman spectroscopy confirming nanoplastic accumulation in brain tissue — suggesting that global warming may substantially amplify the neurological risks of plastic nanoparticle pollution.

Global warming and plastic pollution are among the most important environmental problems today. Unfortunately, our world is warming more than expected and biological life, especially in the oceans, has come to the limit of the struggle for survival with the nano-scale plastic pollution that is constantly released from the main material. In this study, the synergic effect of one-degree temperature increase (28, 29, 30 °C) and 100 nm size polystyrene plastic nanoparticles on circadian rhythm, brain damage and metabolomics in zebrafish were investigated in an environment where temperature control with 0.05-degree precision is provided. A temperature increase of 1°, together with nanoplastic exposure, affected the circadian rhythm in zebrafish, caused damage to the brain and caused significant changes in the intensity of a total of 18 metabolites in different pathways. It was also detected Raman signals of polystyrene in the brain homogenate. As a consequence, it is suggested that one degree of temperature increase pave the way for degeneration in the brain by disrupting some metabolic pathways, thereby significantly increasing the negative effects of nano-plastic on behavior.

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