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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Micro- and nanoplastics as immunomodulatory vectors: synergistic interactions with pollutants and pathogens across aquatic food webs
ClearSorption, uptake, trophic transfer and immunotoxicity of microplastics and nanoplastics in the aquatic environment
This review examines how microplastics and nanoplastics are sorbed, taken up by organisms, transferred through food webs, and how they affect immune function in aquatic species. Researchers synthesize evidence showing these particles can accumulate across trophic levels and trigger immunotoxic effects, with implications for both wildlife and human health.
Micro(nano)plastics: Unignorable vectors for organisms
This review examines the role of micro- and nanoplastics as vectors for contaminants — including heavy metals, organic pollutants, and pathogens — in aquatic and terrestrial environments. It synthesizes evidence on how plastic particles can adsorb, transport, and release harmful substances, amplifying their ecological and health risks beyond the physical effects of the particles alone.
Microplastics as vectors of environmental contaminants: Interactions in the natural ecosystems
This review examines how microplastics act as vectors for pathogens, persistent organic pollutants, and heavy metals in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, summarising evidence that these particles damage cell membranes, tissues, and physiological processes in exposed organisms.
Potential Health Risks of Micro-Nanoplastics and Persistent Organic Pollutants: A Review of Exposure Pathways and Toxic Effects
This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics can enhance the bioavailability of persistent organic pollutants through a Trojan horse effect, leading to combined inflammatory, cellular, and metabolic toxic effects that threaten human health beyond what either contaminant causes alone.
Interactive effects of micro/nanoplastics and nanomaterials/pharmaceuticals: Their ecotoxicological consequences in the aquatic systems
Researchers reviewed how micro- and nanoplastics interact with co-occurring nanomaterials and pharmaceuticals in aquatic environments, finding that plastics act as vectors that can either amplify or attenuate the bioavailability and toxicity of these contaminants depending on species, trophic level, and environmental conditions.
Combined toxicity of micro/nanoplastics loaded with environmental pollutants to organisms and cells: Role, effects, and mechanism
This review of 162 articles found that micro/nanoplastics act as vectors transporting heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, drugs, bacteria, and viruses into organisms, with combined exposure often increasing toxicity beyond individual pollutant effects. Nanoplastics' 'Trojan horse' effect specifically increased the bioaccessibility of environmental pollutants, elevating carcinogenic risk to humans.
Microplastics as vectors for environmental contaminants in the food chain: Assessing the combined toxicological effects and bioavailability
This review examines how microplastics and nanoplastics act as carriers for environmental pollutants including heavy metals, organic chemicals, and microbial agents as they move through food chains. Researchers detail how polymer type, particle size, and environmental conditions influence the binding and release of these contaminants. The study highlights that the combined toxicity of microplastics together with the pollutants they carry may be greater than either would cause alone.
Effect of micro- and nanoplastics as food contaminants on the immune system
This review synthesized research on how microplastic and nanoplastic exposure affects immune system function, finding evidence across multiple studies that these particles can modulate immune responses and trigger inflammatory pathways in exposed organisms. The authors highlight immune disruption as an emerging health concern from micro- and nanoplastic contamination.
Association between Microorganisms and Microplastics: How Does It Change the Host–Pathogen Interaction and Subsequent Immune Response?
This review explores how microplastics act as surfaces where bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms can attach and change their properties. When germs hitchhike on microplastic particles, their physical and chemical traits can shift, potentially tricking or overwhelming the immune system in new ways. The findings suggest that microplastic-associated pathogens could pose unexpected risks to human health by triggering abnormal immune responses.
Ecotoxicology of microplastics in water ecosystems and aquatic organisms: A review of synergistic and antagonistic effects of microplastics on other xenobiotics
This review examines the ecotoxicological effects of microplastics in aquatic ecosystems, focusing on how they interact with other pollutants like heavy metals, organic contaminants, and pathogens. The study highlights that microplastics can adsorb and transport these pollutants through synergistic or antagonistic interactions, leading to oxidative stress, endocrine disruption, and reproductive impairment in exposed organisms, with potential for biomagnification up the food chain.
Microplastics: A Potential Vector for Pathogens in Aquatic Ecosystems
This review examines the evidence that microplastics act as vectors for pathogens in aquatic environments, summarizing how the large surface area and persistence of microplastics promote pathogen adhesion, biofilm formation, and transport of harmful microorganisms.
Toxicological review of micro- and nano-plastics in aquatic environments: Risks to ecosystems, food web dynamics and human health.
This review synthesized evidence on the toxicological effects of micro- and nanoplastics in aquatic ecosystems, covering risks to individual organisms, disruptions to food web dynamics, and pathways through which plastic exposure poses risks to human health via seafood consumption.
Microplastics as Silent Invaders: A Multiscale Review of their Toxicological Effects and Contaminant Interactions in Terrestrial and Aquatic Environments
This multiscale review evaluated the toxicological effects of microplastics at molecular, cellular, and ecosystem levels in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. Special emphasis was placed on microplastics as vectors for heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, and pharmaceuticals, which amplify their toxicity beyond direct physical effects.
Fate of microplastics and emerging contaminants: Mechanisms of interactions, bioaccumulation and combined toxicity to aquatic organisms
This review summarizes how microplastics interact with other emerging contaminants in water, finding that microplastics can absorb pollutants at concentrations up to a million times higher than surrounding water and carry them into living organisms. The combined toxicity of microplastics plus these hitchhiking chemicals is often greater than either alone, and these pollutants can reach humans through the food chain.
Microplastics as Vectors of Chemicals and Microorganisms in the Environment
This review examines microplastics as vectors for chemicals and microorganisms in the environment, discussing the 'plastisphere' concept, hydrophobic surface interactions that facilitate pollutant adsorption, biofilm formation, and the mechanisms by which microplastics transport contaminants and pathogens through aquatic systems.
Effects of microplastics on the toxicity of co-existing pollutants to fish: A meta-analysis
Meta-analysis of 1,380 biological endpoints from 55 studies found that microplastics in co-existing pollutant solutions significantly increased toxicity to fish beyond what the pollutants caused alone, particularly elevating immune system damage, metabolic disruption, and oxidative stress. The effect depended on fish life stage and microplastic size, but not on pollutant or polymer type.
Unraveling the ecotoxicological effects of micro and nano-plastics on aquatic organisms and human health
This review summarizes the growing body of evidence on how micro- and nanoplastics affect aquatic organisms and, through the food chain, potentially human health. The tiny plastic particles absorb toxic pollutants and pathogens from the water, acting as carriers that deliver these harmful substances into the bodies of fish, shellfish, and other organisms. The review highlights that both direct plastic toxicity and indirect chemical exposure through contaminated seafood pose risks to human consumers.
Microplastics aggravate the bioaccumulation and toxicity of coexisting contaminants in aquatic organisms: A synergistic health hazard
Researchers conducted a quantitative meta-analysis of 870 endpoints from 40 studies to evaluate whether microplastics increase the bioaccumulation and toxicity of co-occurring contaminants in aquatic organisms. They found that microplastics significantly increased co-contaminant bioaccumulation by 31% and exacerbated toxicity by 18%, with effects manifesting as increased oxidative stress, endocrine disruption, and immunotoxicity. The study confirms that microplastics act as vectors that amplify the hazards of other environmental pollutants.
Transport of persistent organic pollutants: Another effect of microplastic pollution?
This review examines how microplastics act as vectors for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in aquatic environments, covering the physical and chemical factors governing pollutant adsorption and desorption. The authors discuss how interactions between microplastics and POPs vary with polymer type, particle properties, and environmental conditions, and when these interactions may result in toxic effects on aquatic organisms.
A review on the combined toxicological effects of microplastics and their attached pollutants
Researchers reviewed how microplastics act as carriers for other environmental pollutants — including heavy metals and persistent organic chemicals — and how these combinations produce toxic effects in organisms that are more severe than either contaminant alone. The findings highlight a complex, layered toxicity problem that affects microbes, invertebrates, and vertebrates across marine and terrestrial environments.
The impact of microplastic pollution on ecological environment: a review
This review examines the broad ecological impact of microplastic pollution, focusing on how the strong adsorption capacity of microplastic surfaces allows them to carry persistent organic pollutants through the environment. Researchers found that the combined effects of microplastics and adsorbed chemicals increase toxicity to organisms across different levels of the food chain. The study calls for more research into the long-term ecological consequences of microplastic pollution and its synergistic effects with other contaminants.
The Hidden Poison: How Microplastics and Nanoplastics Threaten the Health of Aquatic Organisms Across Ecosystems
This review synthesizes evidence on how microplastics and nanoplastics interact with aquatic organisms at molecular, cellular, and systemic levels across diverse ecosystems. The study highlights documented effects including oxidative stress, mitochondrial damage, neurotoxicity, immune disruption, and reproductive impairment across a wide range of aquatic species.
Micro(nano)plastics Prevalence, Food Web Interactions, and Toxicity Assessment in Aquatic Organisms: A Review
This review examines the prevalence of micro- and nanoplastics across aquatic environments and their documented toxic effects on organisms ranging from plankton to fish, including DNA damage, reproductive harm, and neurotoxicity. Researchers found clear evidence that these particles transfer through aquatic food webs and can ultimately reach humans through seafood consumption. The study calls for more research into how microplastics carrying multiple contaminants cause combined toxic effects in marine organisms.
Interactions of microplastics with contaminants in freshwater systems: a review of characteristics, bioaccessibility, and environmental factors affecting sorption
This review examined how microplastics act as vectors for environmental contaminants in freshwater systems, analyzing the characteristics, bioaccessibility, and environmental factors that influence pollutant sorption onto plastic particles and their potential transfer to organisms including humans.