Titel (eng)

Micro- and Nanoplastics Breach the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB): Biomolecular Corona's Role Revealed

Autor*in

Verena Kopatz   Medical University of Vienna

Lukas Kenner   University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna / Medical University of Vienna / Center for Biomarker Research in Medicine

Oldamur Hollóczki   University of Debrecen

A Dick Vethaak   Utrecht University / Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Joachim Widder   Medical University of Vienna

Verena Pichler   University of Vienna / Center for Biomarker Research in Medicine

Alison S Keimowitz   Vassar College

Tibor Kovács   University of Debrecen

Kevin Wen   Vassar College

Verlag

MDPI

Beschreibung (eng)

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.

Sprache des Objekts

Englisch

Datum

2023

Rechte

Dieses Werk bzw. dieser Inhalt steht unter einer
CC BY 4.0 - Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International Lizenz.

CC BY 4.0 International

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Klassifikation

Molecular-Dynamics; Polystyrene Nanoparticles; Initial Configurations; Microplastics; Simulation; Particles; Package; Gromacs; Cells; Model

Mitglied in der/den Collection(s) (1)