Protein Corona-Directed Cellular Recognition and Uptake of Polyethylene Nanoplastics by Macrophages.

The widespread use of plastic products in daily life has raised concerns about the health hazards associated with nanoplastics (NPs). When exposed, NPs are likely to infiltrate the bloodstream, interact with plasma proteins, and trigger macrophage recognition and clearance. In this study, we focused on establishing a correlation between the unique protein coronal signatures of high-density (HDPE) and low-density (LDPE) polyethylene (PE) NPs with their ultimate impact on macrophage recognition and cytotoxicity. We observed that low-density and high-density lipoprotein receptors (LDLR and SR-B1), facilitated by apolipoproteins, played an essential role in PE-NP recognition. Consequently, PE-NPs activated the caspase-3/GSDME pathway and ultimately led to pyroptosis. Advanced imaging techniques, including label-free scattered light confocal imaging and cryo-soft X-ray transmission microscopy with 3D-tomographic reconstruction (nano-CT), provided powerful insights into visualizing NPs-cell interactions. These findings underscore the potential risks of NPs to macrophages and introduce analytical methods for studying the behavior of NPs in biological systems.

Screening the phytotoxicity of micro/nanoplastics through non-targeted metallomics with synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence and deep learning: Taking micro/nano polyethylene terephthalate as an example.

Microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) are global pollutants with emerging concerns. Methods to predict and screen their toxicity are crucial. Elemental dyshomeostasis can be used to assess toxicity of environmental pollutants. Non-targeted metallomics, combining synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence (SRXRF) and machine learning, has successfully differentiated cancer patients from healthy individuals. The whole idea of this work is to screen the phytotoxicity of nano polyethylene terephthalate (nPET) and micro polyethylene terephthalate (mPET) through non-targeted metallomics with SRXRF and deep learning algorithms. Firstly, Seed germination, seedling growth, photosynthetic changes, and antioxidant activity were used to evaluate the toxicity of mPET and nPET. It was showed that nPET, at 10 mg/L, was more toxic to rice seedlings, inhibiting growth and impairing chlorophyll content, MDA content, and SOD activity compared to mPET. Then, rice seedling leaves exposed to nPET or mPET was examined with SRXRF, and the SRXRF data was differentiated with deep learning algorithms. It was showed that the one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1D-CNN) model achieved 98.99% accuracy without data preprocessing in screening mPET and nPET exposure. In all, non-targeted metallomics with SRXRF and 1D-CNN can effectively screen the exposure and phytotoxicity of nPET/mPET and potentially other emerging pollutants. Further research is needed to assess the phytotoxicity of different types of MPs/NPs using non-targeted metallomics.