phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at o:1636 DOI 10.3390/nano13081404 Micro- and Nanoplastics Breach the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB): Biomolecular Corona's Role Revealed Humans are continuously exposed to polymeric materials such as in textiles, car tires and packaging. Unfortunately, their break down products pollute our environment, leading to widespread contamination with micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs). The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is an important biological barrier that protects the brain from harmful substances. In our study we performed short term uptake studies in mice with orally administered polystyrene micro-/nanoparticles (9.55 µm, 1.14 µm, 0.293 µm). We show that nanometer sized particles-but not bigger particles-reach the brain within only 2 h after gavage. To understand the transport mechanism, we performed coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations on the interaction of DOPC bilayers with a polystyrene nanoparticle in the presence and absence of various coronae. We found that the composition of the biomolecular corona surrounding the plastic particles was critical for passage through the BBB. Cholesterol molecules enhanced the uptake of these contaminants into the membrane of the BBB, whereas the protein model inhibited it. These opposing effects could explain the passive transport of the particles into the brain. eng Molecular-Dynamics; Polystyrene Nanoparticles; Initial Configurations; Microplastics; Simulation; Particles; Package; Gromacs; Cells; Model 2023-05-31T14:03:52.701Z LOMv1.0 Author BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Kopatz;Verena; FN:Verena Kopatz X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7512-1398 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Kenner;Lukas; FN:Lukas Kenner X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2184-1338 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Hollóczki;Oldamur; FN:Oldamur Hollóczki END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Vethaak;A Dick; FN:A Dick Vethaak END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Widder;Joachim; FN:Joachim Widder X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9972-6690 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Pichler;Verena; FN:Verena Pichler X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4544-2438 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Keimowitz;Alison S; FN:Alison S Keimowitz END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Kovács;Tibor; FN:Tibor Kovács END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Wen;Kevin; FN:Kevin Wen END:VCARD https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/scheme https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/text Textdokument Text LOMv1.0 yes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 application/pdf 682954 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:1636 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/api/object/o:1636/thumbnail LOMv1.0 discipline