Papers

20 results
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Systematic Review Tier 1

Breaching Barriers: Microplastic Translocation into Human Body Through Food and Implications for Neurodegeneration

This systematic review traced how microplastics enter the body through food and potentially reach the brain. Once ingested, these particles can cross the gut barrier, enter the bloodstream, and accumulate in brain tissue, where they may cause oxidative stress and inflammation that could contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

2025 Current Pollution Reports
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and the gut-brain axis: Unraveling neurotoxic mechanisms and health implications

This review examines how microplastics interact with the gut-brain axis, a communication network linking the digestive system to the central nervous system. Researchers found that microplastics can disrupt intestinal barrier integrity, alter gut microbiota composition, and trigger systemic inflammation that may affect neurotransmitter balance and brain function. The study suggests that chronic microplastic exposure through the diet could contribute to neurological effects through inflammatory and oxidative stress pathways.

2026 The Innovation Medicine
Article Tier 2

Neurotoxicity of Micro- and Nanoplastics: A Comprehensive Review of Central Nervous System Impacts

This comprehensive review summarizes the evidence linking micro- and nanoplastic exposure to damage in the brain and nervous system. The plastics can harm neurons, disrupt the protective blood-brain barrier, trigger brain inflammation, and promote the clumping of proteins associated with diseases like Alzheimer's. The review highlights the gut-brain axis as a key pathway, meaning microplastics swallowed in food and water could affect brain health through the digestive system.

2025 Environment & Health 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Mechanistic insight of neurodegeneration due to micro/nano-plastic-induced gut dysbiosis.

This review provided mechanistic insight into how micro/nano-plastic-induced gut dysbiosis drives neurodegeneration, tracing a pathway from intestinal microbiome disruption to neuroinflammation and brain damage. It identified the gut-brain axis as the critical link between plastic particle exposure and progressive neurodegenerative conditions.

2025 Archives of toxicology
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and human health: unveiling the gut microbiome disruption and chronic disease risks

This review summarizes evidence that microplastics disrupt the gut microbiome, the community of bacteria in our digestive system that plays a key role in immunity, metabolism, and overall health. By altering gut bacteria balance and triggering inflammation, microplastic exposure may contribute to chronic conditions including inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic disorders, and potentially even neurological problems through the gut-brain connection.

2024 Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology 82 citations
Article Tier 2

Probiotics an emerging therapeutic approach towards gut-brain-axis oriented chronic health issues induced by microplastics: A comprehensive review

This review examines how microplastics disrupt the gut-brain axis, the communication system between the digestive system and the brain, leading to chronic health problems like inflammation and neurological issues. The authors highlight probiotics as a promising treatment approach, since beneficial bacteria can help repair gut damage caused by microplastic exposure. The findings suggest that supporting gut health through probiotics may help counteract some of the harmful effects of microplastics on both digestion and brain function.

2024 Heliyon 19 citations
Article Tier 2

Innovative mechanisms of micro- and nanoplastic-induced brain injury: Emphasis on the microbiota-gut-brain axis

This review summarizes how micro- and nanoplastics may damage the brain through the gut-brain axis, a communication pathway between the digestive system and the nervous system. Nanoplastics can disrupt gut bacteria and weaken the intestinal barrier, potentially sending inflammatory signals to the brain. The authors suggest that targeting gut health could be a way to reduce brain damage caused by nanoplastic exposure.

2024 Life Sciences 17 citations
Article Tier 2

Molecular insights into physiological impact of micro- and nano-plastics on the digestive system and gut-brain axis

This review evaluates molecular-level evidence on how micro- and nanoplastics affect the digestive system and the gut-brain axis after ingestion through contaminated food and water. The study describes how these particles accumulate in the gastrointestinal tract, liver, and pancreas, causing oxidative stress, gut microbiota disruption, and compromised intestinal barriers, potentially allowing particles to reach the central nervous system and contribute to neuroinflammatory conditions.

2026 Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part C Toxicology & Pharmacology
Article Tier 2

Impact of micro- and nanoplastics exposure on human health: focus on neurological effects from ingestion

This review compiles emerging evidence on how ingested microplastics and nanoplastics may affect the brain and nervous system. Researchers found that these particles can disrupt gut bacteria, cross the blood-brain barrier, and accumulate in neural tissue, potentially triggering inflammation, oxidative stress, and protein changes linked to cognitive problems. The study highlights an urgent need for more human research, as initial findings have associated elevated plastic particle levels in brain tissue with neurological concerns.

2025 Frontiers in Public Health 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Deciphering the Neurotoxic Burden of Micro- and Nanoplastics: From Multi-model Experimental Evidence to Therapeutic Innovation

This review summarizes research on how micro- and nanoplastics damage the brain and nervous system, covering evidence from cell studies, animal experiments, and clinical observations. Plastic particles can cross the blood-brain barrier, disrupt the gut-brain connection, cause oxidative stress, and trigger inflammation that leads to memory problems and cognitive decline. The review also discusses potential treatment strategies, making it a useful resource for understanding the brain health risks of plastic exposure.

2025 Molecular Neurobiology 6 citations
Article Tier 2

The microbiota-gut-brain axis in mental and neurodegenerative disorders: opportunities for prevention and intervention.

This review synthesized evidence linking gut microbiome disruption to neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders via the microbiota-gut-brain axis, identifying opportunities for prevention and intervention. Gut dysbiosis driven by environmental factors—including plastic-associated chemicals—was implicated in conditions like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, and depression.

2025 Frontiers in aging neuroscience
Article Tier 2

Effects of Microplastics on Mental Health

This review examines the emerging evidence linking microplastic exposure to mental health outcomes, discussing proposed mechanisms including neuroinflammation, gut-brain axis disruption, and endocrine interference from plastic-associated chemicals. The authors call for dedicated human cohort studies to establish whether environmental microplastic levels contribute to psychiatric or cognitive conditions.

2024 Eurasian Journal of Toxicology 1 citations
Article Tier 2

The effects of micro- and nanoplastics on the central nervous system: A new threat to humanity?

This review summarizes growing evidence that micro- and nanoplastics can cross the blood-brain barrier and damage the central nervous system through inflammation, oxidative stress, and disruption of brain chemicals. The authors note that microplastic exposure has been linked to memory and behavior changes in animals and may contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's, though direct human evidence is still limited.

2024 Toxicology 52 citations
Article Tier 2

From exposure to neurotoxicity induced by micro-nanoplastics with brain accumulation and cognitive decline

This review synthesizes evidence that micro- and nanoplastics can reach the brain by crossing the blood-brain barrier or traveling along nerve pathways, accumulating in regions critical for memory and thinking. Animal studies show that chronic exposure leads to cognitive problems, behavioral changes, and brain changes resembling neurodegenerative diseases, driven by oxidative stress, inflammation, and disruption of the gut-brain connection. The findings raise concern that long-term human exposure to nanoplastics through food and air could contribute to cognitive decline and neurological disease.

2025 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Health risk analysis of micro-and nanoplastic exposure via the microbiota-gut-brain axis

This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics that accumulate in the gastrointestinal tract may disrupt the microbiota-gut-brain axis through neural, immune, and endocrine pathways. The study suggests that these particles can interfere with normal gut microbiota function after entering the body through diet, inhalation, and skin contact, potentially inducing or worsening health effects.

2026 Frontiers in Immunology
Article Tier 2

Uncovering the impact of nano- and microplastics on neurodegenerative diseases and strategies to mitigate their damage

Researchers reviewed evidence that micro- and nanoplastics may contribute to the progression of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases by triggering brain inflammation, disrupting mitochondria (the cell's power source), and damaging the blood-brain barrier. The review also found that natural compounds like melatonin and probiotics show early promise in reducing some of these harmful effects.

2025 Environmental Medicine 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Nano- and Microplastics in the Brain: An Emerging Threat to Neural Health

This review summarizes evidence that nano- and microplastics can cross the blood-brain barrier and accumulate in brain tissue, where they trigger oxidative stress, inflammation, and protein clumping linked to diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The findings suggest that plastic particles may also interfere with the brain's ability to heal from injury, though long-term human studies are still lacking.

2025 Nanomaterials 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastic Impact on the Gut-Brain Axis: Current Knowledge and Future Directions

Researchers reviewed the emerging evidence on how nanoplastics may affect the gut-brain axis, the communication pathway between the digestive and nervous systems. Studies indicate that nanoplastic exposure can alter gut microbiota, increase intestinal permeability, trigger oxidative stress and inflammation, and produce neurotoxic and behavioral effects. The review calls for more research given the ubiquitous presence of plastics in the human environment and the potential for nanoplastics to disrupt this critical biological communication pathway.

2021 International Journal of Molecular Sciences 51 citations
Article Tier 2

From the Gut to the Brain: Microplastic‐Associated Neurovascular Dysfunction and Implications for Stroke Risk

This review examines evidence that microplastics may affect neurovascular health through the gut-brain axis, potentially contributing to stroke risk factors. Researchers found that animal and in vitro studies suggest microplastics can disrupt gut barrier integrity, trigger systemic inflammation, and impair blood-brain barrier function, though the authors note that direct causal links in humans remain unestablished.

2026 Advanced Science
Article Tier 2

Oxidized/unmodified-polyethylene microplastics neurotoxicity in mice: Perspective from microbiota-gut-brain axis

Mice exposed to both regular and environmentally weathered polyethylene microplastics developed brain and gut damage, including behavioral changes, weakened gut and blood-brain barriers, and inflammation -- with weathered microplastics causing even more harm. Importantly, treatment with a probiotic (Lactobacillus) and a prebiotic partially reversed these effects, suggesting that gut-friendly supplements might help protect against microplastic-related brain and intestinal damage.

2024 Environment International 64 citations