Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Competitive adsorption of lead and cadmium onto nanoplastics with different charges: Two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy study

Researchers investigated how nanoplastics with different surface charges compete to adsorb the heavy metals lead and cadmium, finding that negatively charged nanoplastics bound more of both metals and that lead consistently outcompeted cadmium for binding sites. These results reveal that the surface chemistry of nanoplastics shapes their capacity to carry toxic metals through the environment, with implications for combined heavy-metal and nanoplastic risk in aquatic ecosystems.

2023 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Structure of soft and hard protein corona around polystyrene nanoplastics—Particle size and protein types

Researchers characterized the protein corona that forms around polystyrene nanoplastics of different sizes, finding that particle size influences which proteins bind and how tightly, with implications for nanoplastic toxicity and biological uptake.

2020 Biointerphases 62 citations
Article Tier 2

Protein corona as a mediator in antibiotic adsorption onto microplastics: Mechanisms and implications

Researchers investigated how protein coronas that form on microplastic surfaces mediate the adsorption of antibiotics in environmental settings. The study provides direct evidence that biological molecules on microplastics facilitate chemical interactions with antibiotics, creating complexes that may pose risks to human health through environmental exposure pathways.

2025 International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 1 citations
Article Tier 2

New molecular mechanism of nanoplastics affecting cadmium protein toxicity: Conformational response and differential binding of human serum albumin

Researchers showed that cadmium alone disrupts the structure and transport function of human serum albumin (the blood's main protein carrier), and that co-exposure with nanoplastics — which form a protein corona by binding albumin to their surface — further exacerbates these structural disruptions and enzyme activity losses, raising concerns about combined nanoplastic-heavy metal toxicity.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Molecular mechanism underlying the modulated toxicity of differently charged and sized nanoplastics by bovine serum albumin

This study examined how bovine serum albumin modulates the toxicity of polystyrene nanoplastics with different charges and sizes in biological systems. Serum albumin formed a protein corona that reduced the toxicity of negatively charged nanoplastics but had less protective effect against positively charged particles.

2025 Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B Biology
Article Tier 2

Unravelling protein corona formation on pristine and leached microplastics

Researchers found that when microplastics encounter proteins in biological fluids, they get coated in a "protein corona" that depends heavily on the plastic's chemical additives, surface area, and how much it has been weathered in the environment. This coating changes how microplastics behave in the body, meaning toxicity studies need to account for these real-world surface changes.

2024 Microplastics and Nanoplastics 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Unravelling protein corona formation on pristine and leached microplastics

When microplastics enter biological fluids or protein-rich environments, proteins coat their surface to form a 'protein corona' that changes how the particles behave in living systems. This study explored how the physical and chemical properties of pristine versus weathered microplastics influence corona formation, finding that surface changes caused by environmental aging significantly alter protein binding. Understanding this process matters because the protein coat — not the plastic itself — is often what cells and organisms first encounter.

2023 Research Square (Research Square)
Article Tier 2

Different electrically charged proteins result in diverse transport behaviors of plastic particles with different surface charge in quartz sand

This study found that protein coatings on microplastic surfaces significantly changed how the particles moved through quartz sand, with the effect depending on whether the proteins were positively or negatively charged. Protein coronas that form on microplastics in biological systems alter their transport behavior, which is important for understanding how plastic particles move through both environmental systems and the human body.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 44 citations
Article Tier 2

Assessment on interactive prospectives of nanoplastics with plasma proteins and the toxicological impacts of virgin, coronated and environmentally released-nanoplastics

Researchers found that nanoplastics quickly coat themselves in blood proteins, forming a multi-layered "corona" that changes the proteins' shape and makes them biologically harmful; these protein-coated nanoplastics caused more DNA and cell damage in human blood cells than bare nanoplastics. The study highlights the need to regulate nanoplastics in medical products and better understand how they accumulate in the body.

2019 Scientific Reports 289 citations
Article Tier 2

The Formation of Protein Corona by Nanoplastics and Horseradish Peroxidase

Researchers investigated the formation of protein corona on amino-functionalized polystyrene nanoplastics by horseradish peroxidase, characterizing the adsorption interaction using multiple analytical approaches to understand how nanoplastics acquire protein coatings in biological environments. They found that nanoplastics readily adsorb the enzyme to form a stable protein corona, which may alter both nanoplastic behavior in biological systems and enzyme activity.

2022 Nanomaterials 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Oppositely charged proteins lead to different effects on the bioaccumulation kinetics of polystyrene nanoplastics in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Researchers studied how positively and negatively charged proteins in water affect the bioaccumulation of polystyrene nanoplastics in zebrafish. The study found that different protein types altered nanoplastic uptake kinetics in distinct ways, suggesting that the natural protein environment in water bodies plays an important role in determining how nanoplastics accumulate in aquatic organisms.

2025 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Influence of nanoplastic surface charge on eco-corona formation, aggregation and toxicity to freshwater zooplankton

Researchers examined how surface charge and natural organic matter influence the stability and toxicity of polystyrene nanoplastics to freshwater zooplankton. They found that positively charged nanoplastics were significantly more toxic than negatively charged ones, and that natural organic matter formed an eco-corona on the particles that reduced their toxicity. The study highlights that both particle surface properties and environmental conditions play critical roles in determining nanoplastic impacts on aquatic organisms.

2019 Environmental Pollution 242 citations
Article Tier 2

Preferred Lung Accumulation of Polystyrene Nanoplastics with Negative Charges

Researchers investigated why certain nanoplastics preferentially accumulate in the lungs after entering the bloodstream. They found that negatively charged polystyrene nanoplastics attract specific blood proteins that promote uptake by lung blood vessel cells through a receptor-mediated pathway. The study suggests that the protein coating nanoplastics acquire in the blood plays a critical role in determining where they end up in the body.

2024 Nano Letters 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of polystyrene nanoplastics on lead toxicity in dandelion seedlings

Researchers investigated how different types of functionalized polystyrene nanoplastics affect lead toxicity in dandelion seedlings. The results showed that the surface chemistry of nanoplastics matters: carboxy-modified particles with negative surface charges enhanced lead toxicity, while amino-modified particles with positive charges reduced it, highlighting the complex interactions between nanoplastics and heavy metal contaminants in plants.

2022 Environmental Pollution 52 citations
Article Tier 2

Fate of polystyrene micro- and nanoplastics in zebrafish liver cells: Influence of protein corona on transport, oxidative stress, and glycolipid metabolism

Scientists studied how proteins in biological fluids coat nanoplastic particles (forming a "protein corona") and how this coating changes the way cells take up and process the plastics. The protein coating actually increased how many nanoplastics entered liver cells and made them harder to clear out, suggesting that once nanoplastics enter the bloodstream, the body's own proteins may make the contamination harder to eliminate.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Strong binding between nanoplastic and bacterial proteins facilitates protein corona formation and reduces nanoplastics toxicity

Researchers demonstrated that bacteria-derived proteins adsorb strongly onto nanoplastic surfaces to form a 'protein corona,' altering nanoplastic morphology and reducing their toxicity to bacterial cells — with the degree of protection varying by surface chemistry, as amino-modified nanoplastics showed the greatest reduction in oxidative damage after corona formation.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Tailor-Made Protein Corona Formation on Polystyrene Microparticles and its Effect on Epithelial Cell Uptake

Researchers investigated how protein corona formation on polystyrene microparticles affects epithelial cell uptake, finding that the initial protein precoating critically influenced final corona composition and particle-cell interactions while leaving cell viability unaffected.

2022 ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Thermodynamic Analysis of Protein-Nanoparticle Interactions Links Binding Affinity and Structural Stability

Researchers examined how protein charge distribution influences adsorption onto polystyrene nanoparticles by engineering a series of lysozyme variants and analyzing binding affinity through thermodynamic analysis. They found that electrostatic properties of proteins strongly govern corona formation kinetics and structural stability when nanoplastics enter biological fluids.

2025
Article Tier 2

Microplastics inhibit lead binding to sediment components: Influence of surface functional groups and charge environment

Researchers systematically investigated interactions among lead, polystyrene microplastics, and sediment components to understand how microplastics affect heavy metal behavior in aquatic environments. The study found that polystyrene significantly inhibited lead adsorption to sediment by competing for binding sites, reducing lead uptake by up to 28%, which suggests that microplastics could increase the mobility of toxic metals in contaminated waterways.

2025 Water Research 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of Protein Corona Formation and Polystyrene Nanoparticle Functionalisation on the Interaction with Dynamic Biomimetic Membranes Comprising of Integrin

Researchers studied how polystyrene nanoparticles interact with blood proteins and cell membranes to understand potential health effects of nanoplastic exposure. They found that when blood proteins coat the nanoparticles, forming a so-called protein corona, it actually reduces the particles' ability to damage cell membranes. The study suggests that the body's natural protein coating of nanoplastics may offer some protection against membrane disruption, though the long-term implications remain unclear.

2024 ChemBioChem 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Exploring the interactions between protein coronated CdSe quantum dots and nanoplastics

Researchers investigated how protein coatings (coronas) that form on quantum dot nanoparticles affect their interactions with nanoplastics in the environment. These particle-particle interactions can alter how both quantum dots and nanoplastics behave, move, and accumulate in biological systems.

2021 New Journal of Chemistry 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Adsorption of clarithromycin on polystyrene nanoplastics surface and its combined adverse effect on serum albumin

Researchers examined how the antibiotic clarithromycin binds to the surface of polystyrene nanoplastics and how this combination interacts with blood proteins. They found that the drug readily adsorbed onto the nanoplastic surface and that the drug-nanoplastic complex altered the structure and function of serum albumin more than either substance alone. The findings suggest that nanoplastics could amplify the biological effects of pharmaceutical pollutants by acting as carriers in the body.

2023 Colloids and Surfaces B Biointerfaces 16 citations
Article Tier 2

What Is on the Outside Matters—Surface Charge and Dissolve Organic Matter Association Affect the Toxicity and Physiological Mode of Action of Polystyrene Nanoplastics toC. elegans

Researchers investigated how surface charge and organic matter coatings affect the toxicity of polystyrene nanoplastics to the nematode C. elegans. Positively charged nanoplastics were over 60 times more toxic than negatively charged ones, and organic matter coatings reduced toxicity across all particle types. The findings suggest that surface chemistry plays a critical role in nanoplastic toxicity and should be considered when assessing environmental risks.

2021 Environmental Science & Technology 79 citations
Article Tier 2

Mechanistic description of lead sorption onto nanoplastics

Researchers investigated the mechanisms by which nanoplastics in the environment adsorb lead and other metal contaminants. The study found that despite growing recognition of nanoplastic presence in ecosystems, the processes by which these tiny particles carry and transport metals remain poorly understood. The findings contribute to a better understanding of how nanoplastics may serve as vectors for spreading heavy metal contamination through the environment.

2024 Environmental Science Nano 10 citations