Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

Microplastics and microbiota: Unraveling the hidden environmental challenge

This editorial summarizes the emerging evidence that microplastics disrupt the gut microbiome, decreasing microbial diversity and triggering an imbalance called dysbiosis. This disruption affects immune function, nutrient metabolism, and overall health, though the full long-term consequences of this two-way relationship between microplastics and gut bacteria remain an active area of research.

2024 World Journal of Gastroenterology 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Resilience to Global Health Challenges Through Nutritional Gut Microbiome Modulation

This review explores how gut microbiome composition during early life influences long-term health, and how nutritional strategies can help build resilience against chronic diseases. Researchers highlight that environmental factors including microplastics and other contaminants can disrupt the developing gut microbiome, potentially contributing to allergies, obesity, and neurological conditions. The study suggests that targeted nutritional interventions to support healthy gut bacteria could help counteract some of these environmental exposures.

2025 Nutrients 2 citations
Article Tier 2

[Effect of microand nanoplastics on the gastrointestinal mucosa and intestinal microbiome].

This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics entering through the food chain affect the gastrointestinal tract, finding evidence of disruption to gut mucosal integrity and intestinal microbiome composition, with implications for digestive health and systemic immune function.

2023 PubMed 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Research Advances on the Impact of Environmental Pollutants on Gut Microbiota

This review synthesizes evidence from animal models, human studies, and mechanistic experiments showing how microplastics, pesticides, and heavy metals each disrupt gut microbiota composition, reduce beneficial bacteria, and compromise intestinal barrier integrity and host health.

2025 Theoretical and Natural Science
Article Tier 2

Processed Diets and Food Additives Shape the Gut Microbiota and Chronic Disease Risk Across the Life Course—A Three-Layer Ecosystem Disruption Model (TLED) Model

Researchers proposed the Three-Layer Ecosystem Disruption (TLED) model to explain how ultra-processed food additives cumulatively impair gut health by damaging intestinal barrier integrity, shifting microbial metabolism toward pro-inflammatory profiles, and reprogramming immune responses, with vulnerability varying by life stage from infancy through older age.

2026 Life
Article Tier 2

Micro(nano)plastics in food system: potential health impacts on human intestinal system.

This review assessed how micro(nano)plastics in the human food system reach the intestine and accumulate in the gut, summarizing evidence that they can alter intestinal barrier function, trigger inflammation, and disrupt the gut microbiome, with implications for long-term digestive health.

2024 Critical reviews in food science and nutrition
Systematic Review Tier 1

Impacts of microplastics on gut health: Current status and future directions

This systematic review found consistent evidence across mouse, fish, and earthworm models that microplastics disrupt gut microbiota composition, impair intestinal barrier integrity, and trigger gastrointestinal inflammation. The correlation between microplastic exposure and gut health deterioration was statistically significant across all animal models examined.

2025 Indian Journal of Gastroenterology 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Perturbation of gut microbiota plays an important role in micro/nanoplastics-induced gut barrier dysfunction

Researchers investigated how micro- and nanoplastics disrupt gut barrier function in mice, finding that different surface chemistries caused varying levels of damage. The study suggests that these plastic particles harm the gut by altering the gut microbiome, which then leads to inflammation and weakening of the intestinal barrier that normally keeps harmful substances out of the body.

2021 Nanoscale 198 citations
Article Tier 2

Gut microbiota as an emerging target for the health implications of microplastics

This review examines how microplastic exposure disrupts the gut microbiome, finding evidence that microplastics damage intestinal barrier proteins, promote inflammation and oxidative stress, and may drive systemic effects including neurotoxicity and reproductive toxicity through gut-mediated pathways.

2025 Food Science and Human Wellness
Article Tier 2

Intestinal permeability, food antigens and the microbiome: a multifaceted perspective

This review summarizes how a leaky gut barrier, caused by factors like Western diets, pollution, and infections, can trigger chronic diseases including celiac disease, food allergies, and irritable bowel syndrome. The gut lining, microbiome, and immune system all work together to maintain health, but environmental disruptions can throw this balance off. This is relevant to microplastics research because studies have shown that microplastic exposure can damage the gut barrier and alter the microbiome in similar ways.

2025 Frontiers in Allergy 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Pollutants, microbiota and immune system: frenemies within the gut

This review summarizes how environmental pollutants, including microplastics, disrupt the gut microbiome and immune system, potentially contributing to inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer. Pollutants reduce beneficial gut bacteria while promoting inflammation, weakening the intestinal barrier, and triggering a chain of events that can push cells toward cancerous growth.

2024 Frontiers in Public Health 36 citations
Article Tier 2

The External Exposome and Allergies: From the Perspective of the Epithelial Barrier Hypothesis

This review examines how environmental changes including air pollution, global warming, and shifting dietary habits damage epithelial barriers in the body, contributing to increased rates of allergies and inflammation. The authors highlight the need for public awareness and government policies to address the health effects of environmental exposures on current and future generations.

2022 Frontiers in Allergy 60 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and the gut microbiome: Emerging health concerns and strategies

This review covers how microplastic ingestion affects the gut microbiome, describing mechanisms by which microplastics cause intestinal disorders, disrupt endocrine function, and promote pathogenic bacterial growth, while also noting inhalation and dermal absorption as secondary exposure routes.

2025 Journal of Environmental Biology
Article Tier 2

Impact of Cumulative Environmental and Dietary Xenobiotics on Human Microbiota: Risk Assessment for One Health

This review examines cumulative exposure to environmental and dietary xenobiotics including microplastics, pesticides, and food additives, assessing their combined impact on the human gut microbiome within a One Health risk framework.

2022 Journal of Xenobiotics 27 citations
Commentary Tier 3

Editorial: Probiotics for global health: advances, applications and challenges

This editorial synthesizes recent advances in probiotic research for global health applications, highlighting their potential to support host health, prevent disease, and counteract dysbiosis, while identifying key challenges in making safe and sustainable probiotic interventions more accessible.

2025 IMAGINE - Repository of the Institute of molecular genetics and genetic engineering (University of Belgrade)
Article Tier 2

Epithelial Barrier Theory: The Role of Exposome, Microbiome, and Barrier Function in Allergic Diseases

This review presents the epithelial barrier theory, which proposes that damage to the body's protective barriers is a key driver of allergic diseases. Researchers identified numerous environmental factors including microplastics, nanoparticles, detergents, and processed food additives that can weaken epithelial barriers in the skin, lungs, and gut. The study suggests that the rising prevalence of allergies may be linked to increasing exposure to barrier-disrupting substances in our modern environment.

2023 Allergy Asthma and Immunology Research 40 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro(nano)plastics and Their Potential Impact on Human Gut Health: A Narrative Review

This review summarizes research on how micro- and nanoplastics affect the gut, finding that they can damage the intestinal lining, trigger immune responses, and disrupt the balance of beneficial gut bacteria in both cell studies and animal models. Since humans are primarily exposed to microplastics through food and food packaging, understanding these gut effects is essential for assessing the true health risks of plastic pollution.

2024 Current Issues in Molecular Biology 62 citations
Commentary Tier 3

Editorial: Probiotics for global health: advances, applications and challenges

This editorial review summarizes recent advances in probiotic research, covering their health benefits, applications in disease prevention, and challenges in scaling safe and effective probiotic interventions. The piece highlights probiotics as a promising complement to conventional therapies given the global burden of dysbiosis-related diseases.

2025 Frontiers in Microbiology 2 citations
Article Tier 2

The Intestinal Barrier—Shielding the Body from Nano- and Microparticles in Our Diet

This review examined how the intestinal barrier protects the body from nano- and microparticles present in the human diet, including food additives and environmental pollutants. Researchers discussed how epithelial barrier function relates to particle uptake and the potential role of nano- and microparticles in inflammatory bowel conditions. The study suggests that while the intestinal barrier provides significant protection, its breakdown could increase vulnerability to dietary particle exposure.

2022 Metabolites 43 citations
Article Tier 2

Effect of altered human exposome on the skin and mucosal epithelial barrier integrity.

This review examined how modern environmental exposures including microplastics, air pollutants, and chemical toxicants disrupt the epithelial barrier integrity of skin and mucous membranes, arguing that the 'exposome' of chronic low-level chemical exposures is a major but underappreciated driver of barrier dysfunction and associated inflammatory diseases.

2023 Tissue barriers