Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics as Epigenetic Disruptors: A Biochemical Review of Environmental Pollutants and Gene Regulation

This biochemical review examined how nanoplastics disrupt epigenetic regulation, focusing on their ability to alter DNA methylation patterns, histone modifications, and non-coding RNA expression. The authors argued that nanoplastic-induced epigenetic changes could have lasting developmental and health consequences, especially during vulnerable life stages.

2025 OICC Press Journals
Article Tier 2

Beyond genetics: can micro and nanoplastics induce epigenetic and gene-expression modifications?

This review gathers existing research on whether micro and nanoplastics can cause epigenetic changes, which are modifications that alter how genes work without changing the DNA itself. Although studies are still limited, the evidence so far shows that both short-term and long-term plastic particle exposure can trigger these gene-level changes in various organisms. This is concerning because epigenetic changes can potentially be passed to future generations and may contribute to disease.

2023 Frontiers in Epigenetics and Epigenomics 33 citations
Article Tier 2

Untoward Effects of Micro- and Nanoplastics: An Expert Review of Their Biological Impact and Epigenetic Effects

This expert review examined the biological and epigenetic effects of micro- and nanoplastics on living organisms. The study suggests that while intestinal uptake of plastic particles appears relatively low and size-dependent, nanoplastics may dysregulate molecular signaling pathways, alter gut microbiota composition, and induce transgenerational epigenetic changes potentially linked to metabolic disorders.

2021 Advances in Nutrition 63 citations
Article Tier 2

Epigenetic mechanisms of particulate matter exposure: air pollution and hazards on human health

This review examines how breathing in particulate matter from air pollution -- which can include microplastic particles -- causes lasting health damage through epigenetic changes, meaning it alters how genes are turned on and off without changing the DNA itself. These changes have been linked to cancer, lung scarring, brain diseases, and metabolic disorders. The findings suggest that airborne microplastics could contribute to disease through similar epigenetic mechanisms.

2024 Frontiers in Genetics 39 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoparticles: Weighing the Pros and Cons from an Eco-genotoxicological Perspective

This review assessed the eco-genotoxicological risks of nanoparticles including nanoplastics and metal oxide nanoparticles, examining their DNA-damaging potential across organisms from bacteria to mammals and finding that surface chemistry and dissolution behavior are the primary determinants of genotoxicity, with implications for environmental risk assessment frameworks.

2021 Journal of Cancer Prevention 19 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics: Focus on the role of microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs

This review explored how nanoplastics may affect gene expression through epigenetic mechanisms, focusing on their potential to alter microRNA and long non-coding RNA regulation, which could contribute to chronic diseases including cancer.

2022 Chemosphere 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Xenobiotics and Epigenetic Modifications: Implications for Human Health and Disease

This review examines how environmental pollutants, including microplastics, can change gene activity through epigenetic modifications without altering DNA itself. These changes to how genes are turned on and off can contribute to cancer, brain diseases, and developmental problems, and may even be passed down to future generations. The research highlights that microplastics and other common pollutants could have long-lasting health effects that go beyond direct chemical toxicity.

2025 Journal of Xenobiotics 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics as Gene and Epigenetic Modulators of Endocrine Functions: A Perspective

This review summarizes how nanoplastics act as endocrine disruptors, interfering with thyroid and sex hormones in animal studies and causing DNA and epigenetic changes that could be passed to future generations. With nanoplastics already detected in human breast milk and placenta, the research underscores the need for more studies on how chronic exposure may affect human hormone function and reproductive health.

2025 International Journal of Molecular Sciences 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Biodegradable Nanoplastic: a Tool for Drug Delivery and Environmental Challenge

This review discusses the dual nature of biodegradable nanoplastics — their promise as targeted drug delivery vehicles due to their controllable surface chemistry, versus the environmental concern of uncontrolled nanoplastic accumulation from biodegradable polymer degradation in ecosystems.

2025 Journal of Biological Research - Bollettino della Società Italiana di Biologia Sperimentale
Article Tier 2

Micro(nano)plastics in the brain: Epigenetic perturbations in progression to neurodegenerative diseases.

This review examined how micro(nano)plastics (MNPs) accumulate in the brain and induce epigenetic changes—including DNA methylation and histone modification—that may drive the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. MNPs were found to disrupt neuronal homeostasis through multiple epigenetic mechanisms after crossing the blood-brain barrier.

2025 Neurotoxicology and teratology
Article Tier 2

Nanoparticles in the Environment and Nanotoxicology

This review examines the environmental fate and toxicological risks of nanomaterials, including engineered nanoparticles and microplastics/nanoplastics, as these materials are increasingly released into ecosystems. The paper surveys current understanding of nanotoxicology and highlights the potential risks that nanoparticle contamination poses to both ecological and human health.

2023 Nanomaterials 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics in the Environment: Sources, Fate, Toxicity, Challenges and Mitigation Strategies

This review covers the formation, environmental fate, and health risks of nanoplastics, emphasizing their capacity to penetrate biological barriers and cause oxidative stress, inflammation, DNA damage, and endocrine disruption, alongside current strategies for mitigation.

2025 Asian Journal of Environment & Ecology
Article Tier 2

The ancillary effects of nanoparticles and their implications for nanomedicine

Researchers reviewed 'ancillary effects' — the unintended biological interactions between nanoparticles and living systems that occur independent of engineered targeting or therapeutic functions — cataloguing how nanomaterial surface properties can modulate cell signaling, immune responses, and toxicity in ways that have major implications for nanomedicine safety and design.

2021 Nature Nanotechnology 228 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2025 Journal of medicine and health science.
Article Tier 2

Environmental Nanopollutants

This overview examines environmental nanopollutants — including engineered nanoparticles and degradation-derived nanoplastics — synthesising recent research on their sources, environmental fate, analytical detection methods, and health and ecological risks as emerging contaminants.

2022 2 citations
Article Tier 2

A Review of The Impact of Nanoparticles on Environmental Processes

This review examines how nanoparticles, including those from plastics, interact with the environment, noting they can both help clean up pollution and cause toxic harm. The impact depends on particle size, chemical properties, and how they accumulate in soil, water, and air. The findings are relevant to microplastics because plastic nanoparticles share many of the same environmental behaviors as other nanoparticles, including the ability to build up in ecosystems and potentially enter the human body.

2024 BIO Web of Conferences 14 citations
Article Tier 2

What happens when nanoparticles encounter bacterial antibiotic resistance?

This review examines how engineered nanoparticles interact with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a topic with significant implications for both environmental contamination and medical treatment. Researchers found that nanoparticles can either promote or inhibit antibiotic resistance depending on factors like particle size, concentration, and surface properties. The findings highlight the need for deeper understanding of how increasing nanoparticle pollution may influence the spread of antibiotic resistance genes in the environment.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Epigenetic Modifications and Gene Expression Alterations in Plants Exposed to Nanomaterials and Nanoplastics: The Role of MicroRNAs, lncRNAs and DNA Methylation

This review examines how nanomaterials and nanoplastics alter plant gene expression through epigenetic mechanisms, focusing on changes in microRNA, long non-coding RNA, and DNA methylation patterns that could disrupt normal plant development and stress responses.

2025 Environments 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro- and nanoplastics: Emerging environmental threats to the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

This review examines how micro- and nanoplastic exposure may contribute to chronic health conditions through the lens of developmental origins of health and disease. Evidence suggests that microplastics accumulate in human metabolic and reproductive tissues and may induce physiological and epigenetic changes that could potentially be inherited by future generations, though research into these mechanisms is still in early stages.

2025 Reproductive Toxicology 1 citations
Article Tier 2

A double‐edged sword: The complex interplay between engineered nanoparticles and platelets

This review explores how engineered nanoparticles interact with platelets in the bloodstream, which can lead to either beneficial or harmful effects. Researchers found that depending on their size, shape, and surface properties, nanoparticles can activate or inhibit platelet function. The study suggests that understanding these interactions is critical for the safe development of nanomedicine drug delivery systems.

2024 Bioengineering & Translational Medicine 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of Nanoplastics on Human Health: A Comprehensive Study

This comprehensive review examines the diverse health effects of nanoplastics, drawing on toxicology, environmental science, and epidemiology to document how these particles interact with human biological systems. The authors conclude that nanoplastics represent a growing public health concern requiring further investigation.

2024 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology (IJISRT) 1 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

A systematic review on the impact of micro-nanoplastics on human health: Potential modulation of epigenetic mechanisms and identification of biomarkers

This systematic review found that micro-nanoplastic exposure can trigger epigenetic modifications including chromatin remodeling and miRNA modulation, with potential effects on the KSR-ERK-MAPK, FOXO-Insulin, and GPX3-HIF-alpha pathways in humans. These epigenetic changes could disrupt glucose balance, apoptosis, cell proliferation, and immune function, and may be heritable through mitosis, raising concerns about transgenerational health effects.

2024 Chemosphere 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics in Agroecosystem and Phytotoxicity

This review argues that nanoplastics (NPs) should be studied independently from microplastics due to their distinct environmental fate and behavior, covering their effects on soil geochemistry, rhizosphere biota, and phytotoxicity including oxidative stress, cytogenotoxicity, and epigenetic effects in plants.

2023 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Nano- and microplastics in the environment : presence, effects and their role as a Trojan horse for other pollutants

This thesis reviews the presence and effects of nano- and microplastics in the environment, examining how they act as carriers for other pollutants and discussing their potential health impacts on ecosystems and humans.

2023 SPIRE - Sciences Po Institutional REpository