Airborne micro- and nanoplastics: emerging causes of respiratory diseases

Gou, Zixuan; Wu, Haonan; Li, Shanyu; Liu, Ziyu; Zhang, Ying

doi:10.1186/s12989-024-00613-6

Particle and Fibre Toxicology

Table 4 Possible mechanisms of AMNPs on respiratory health

From: Airborne micro- and nanoplastics: emerging causes of respiratory diseases

Characteristics	Sample type	AMNPs type	The Sources of AMNPs	Shape	Size	Mechanism	References
Oxidative Imbalance	HPAEpiC and BEAS-2B cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Not clear	7.5, 15, and 30 µg/cm²	Oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial damage can lead to ferroptosis	[121]
	A549 cells	PTFE-MNPs	Ground PTFE raw powder materials with 450 μm average particle size using a homogenize	Not clear	31.7 ± 5.6 μm and 6.0 ± 2.1 μm	Activate ERK signaling pathways, ultimately leading to the generation of ROS and oxidative stress	[122]
	HPAEpiC and BEAS-2B cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Irregular geometric shape	40 nm	Disrupt redox balance, decrease levels of tight junction proteins, reduce levels of matrix metalloproteinase 9 and surfactant protein A, thereby impairing lung repair capacity and causing tissue damage	[125]
	BEAS-2B cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	10 μm and 20 μm	Increased cell apoptosis, levels of MDA and iron content, decreased levels of key ferroxidases (GPX4 and FTH1), and mitochondrial changes	[13]
	A549 cells, BEAS-2B cells and 5–8 weeks BALB/c mice	PE-, PP-, PS-, PVC-MNPs	Commercially available beads	PE, PS AND PVC are regular spheres but have non-uniform size, while PP displays irregular geometric shape	6.5 μm−1 mm, 6.5–100 μm, 3–100 μm, and 6.5–25 μm	Disrupt the cellular redox homeostasis and prompt cellular senescence	[115]
	A549 cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	1 and 5 μm	Reduce the integrity of the single-layer barrier and slowed down the regeneration in wound healing experiments	[98]
	A549 cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	50 nm	Induce significant increases in ROS production	[116]
	A549 cells	PET-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	≤ 20 nm	Oxidative stress induces a decrease in the mitochondrial membrane potential	[118]
Generation of inflammation	A549 cells	PTFE-MNPs	Ground PTFE raw powder materials with 450 μm average particle size using a homogenize	Not clear	31.7 ± 5.6 μm and 6.0 ± 2.1 μm	Increase the secretion of IL−6 and TNF-α	[122]
	A549 cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Not clear	25 and 75 nm	Increase the secretion of NF-κB, TNF-α and IL−8	[132]
	Mice	PP-MNPs	Precipitate a solution dissolved at 200 °C on a hot plate with PP beads and xylene solvent with ethanol	irregular fragments with a spherical shape	0.66 ± 0.27 μm	The NF-κB pathway regulated by p38 phosphorylation as a result of mitochondrial damage	[12]
	Six-week-old male and female (n = 40; 20 males and 20 females) specific pathogen-free (SPF) Sprague-Dawley rats	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	0.10 μm	The lung tissue exhibited an increase in TGF-β and TNF-α that is dependent on exposure concentration	[131]
	BEAS-2B cells	PS-MNPs, NH₂PS-MNPs, COOH-PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	100 nm	Increase the expression and secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-β	[129]
	C57BL/6 mice, BALB/c and ICR mice	PE-, PP-, PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Irregular geometric shape	6.40 ± 1.48 μm for PP, 17.53 ± 2.11 μm for PS and 21.27 ± 6.07 μm for PE	Induce lung inflammation through the TLR4 pathway and raise levels of IL−1β in BALF and elevated levels of NLRP3, ASC, and Caspase−1 in the lung tissue	[133]
	ICR mice	PET-MNPs	Microplastics were prepared from polyethylene beads (5 mm)	Irregular geometric shape	27.0 ± 10.9 μm	Not clear	[127]
	A549 cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	104.77 ± 1.47 nm	Increase the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines	[128]
	A549 cells	Plastic-waste derived MNPs	Were recovered in the laboratory from industrially recycled plastic granules	Irregular shape, encompassing fiber-like formations, with noticeable surface irregularities and structural flaws at the submicron level	≤ 50 μm	Increase the secretion of IL−6 and IL−8	[126]
ER stress	BEAS-2B cells	PS-MNPs, NH₂PS-MNPs, COOH-PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	100 nm	The protein levels associated with the PERK-EIF2α and ATF4-CHOP pathways increased	[128]
	BEAS-2B cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	570 nm	Amino acids and TCA cycle intermediate metabolites	[119]
	BEAS-2B cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	10 μm and 20 μm	The elevation of IRE1α, PERK, XBP1S, and CHOP	[13]
Apoptosis	A549 cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Not clear	25 nm and 70 nm	the expression of Bax/Bcl−2, DR5, caspase−3, caspase−8, caspase−9, and cytochrome c significantly upregulate, resulting in cell apoptosis	[132]
	A549 cells	Bap@PS-MNPs	Ground styrene materials	Spheres	410–470 nm	lead to a significant decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential and involvement of mitochondria in the apoptotic pathway	[138]
Autophagy cell death	BEAS-2B cells	PS-MNPs, NH₂PS-MNPs, COOH-PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	100 nm	Inhibit the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway in cells. They in lysosomes and nuclear deformation can also be observed, resulting in autophagic cell death	[129]
	Human primary nasal epithelial cells	PET-MNPs	Self-preparation within the laboratory	Irregular geometric shape	62.38 nm ± 3.51 μm	Increases in the expression levels of LC3-II and p62 proteins, altering the autophagy pathway	[139]
	A549 cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Not clear	20 nm	Increased autophagic activity, but limit to autophagic capacity	[140]
Impact on LS	LS extracted from porcine lungs	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	500–1000 nm	It can quicken the process of ascorbic acid to dehydroascorbic acid conversion, which causes hydrogen peroxide (HOOH) to be produced in simulated LS, which raises the level of hydroxyl radicals (·OH)	[142]
	Simulated lung fluid	aged MNPs	Commercially available beads	Irregular geometric shape	200 μm	Lipid peroxidation and protein degradation in LS	[143]
	BALB/c mice	PS-, PP-, PVC-MNPs	Self-preparation	PP-MNPs : irregular block like structure; PS-, PET-MNPs: crinkled flocculent morphology	PP-, PET-MNPs are all larger than 200 nm, while the PS-MNPs are around 52 nm	Particles adhered to the air-water interface and aggregated with the LS membrane	[144]
	Alveolar fluid	PS-, PET-, PP-, PE-, PVC-MNPs	Using melting-annealing approach to fabricate nanoplastics of different materials	Spheres	10 nm and 5 nm	Once AMNPs have reached the alveolar air-water interface, they can disrupt the ultrastructure and fluidity of LS, which can interfere with LS’s regular biophysical function and lead to LS membrane collapse	[81]
Microbiota dysbiosis	ICR male mice	AMNPs	Self-preparation within the laboratory	Not clear	5 μm and 99 nm	The most closely linked to MP were nasal Staphylococcus and pulmonary Roseomonas, while the most closely linked to NP were nasal Prevotella and pulmonary unclassified bacteria. Both MP and NP were associated with nasal Staphylococcus, pulmonary Roseomonas, pulmonary Aggregatibacter, and pulmonary Bacillus	[145]
	20 subjects from a Plastic Factory and the other 20 from Huanhuaxi Park	AMNPs	Realistic MNPS	Not clear	Not clear	Increase the abundance of nasal microbiota and decrease the abundance of beneficial microorganisms. It can also increase the abundance of intestinal microbiota	[146]
	20 subjects from a Plastic Factory and the other 20 from Huanhuaxi Park	AMNPs	Realistic MNPS	Not clear	Not clear	Not only cause changes in the major microbial communities in the intestines and nose, but also alter the symbiotic relationship between intestinal and nasal microbiota	[147]
Inhibition of cell proliferation	A549 cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	1 μm and 10 μm	Decrease in cell proliferation	[148]
	A549 cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Not clear	25 nm and 70 nm	Induce cell cycle arrest and have a substantial impact on cell viability	[132]
Promotion of aging	MLE12	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	100 nm	circ_kif26b binds to miR-346-3p and co-regulates the target gene, p21 of miR-346-3p	[148]
	A549 cells, BEAS-2B cells and 5–8 weeks BALB/c mice	PVC-MNPs	Commercially available beads	PE, PS AND PVC are regular spheres but have non-uniform size, while PP displays irregular geometric shape	6.5 μm−1 mm, 6.5–100 μm, 3–100 μm, and 6.5–25 μm	Increase the levels of ROS in A549 cells and the aging features induced by them can be largely reversed by antioxidant treatment. Increase in systemic inflammation levels can cause the accumulation of senescent cells	[115]
Metabolism	HaCaT cells, A549cells and RAW 264.7	ulfate-modified MNPs	Commercially available beads	Irregular geometric shape	210 ± 4.63 nm	Human macrophages exposed to them can stimulate the accumulation of LDs in the cytoplasm, and the accumulated LDs are further transported and accumulated in lysosomes, leading to lysosomal damage and further differentiation of macrophages into foam cells	[150]
	BEAS−2B cells and RAW264.7	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	100 nm	Cause cell damage by regulating prostaglandin B1 and other metabolites via the cGAS-STING pathway	[151]
Induction of ferroptosis	BEAS-2B cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Spheres	100 and 200 nm	The HIF-1α/HO-1 signaling pathway plays an important role in regulating ferroptosis in lung injury	[152]
Genetic toxicity	A549 cells	PET-MNPs	Was produced by grinding food containers	Spheres	136 nm	Increase the level of DNA strand breaks	[153]
Impairment of lysosomal function	A549 cells	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Not clear	10 μm	Lysosomal dysfunction	[154]
Damage to epithelial airway cell	Human and murine alveolar and airway-type organoids as well as air–liquid interface cultures derived from primary lung epithelial progenitor cells	PS-MNPs	Self-preparation within the laboratory	Fibers	15 × 52 μm	Damage developing and/or repairing airways	[157]
	Primary rat alveolar epithelial monolayers	PS-MNPs	Commercially available beads	Not clear	20, 100, 120 nm	Disrupt the characteristics of the alveolar epithelial barrier and involve changes in cellular transport pathways	[159]
Immune responses	Not clear	AMNPs	Not clear	Not clear	Not clear	Insufficient response (immune suppression, increased susceptibility to infection and disease) and excessive response (pathological inflammation, allergies, autoimmune disorders)	[156]
Sulfonamide resistance	KM mice	PET-MNPs	Locally purchased mineral water bottles were cut and mechanically broke into small particles with the aid of a kitchen blender	Not clear	63.4 μm	Increase the relative abundance of multidrug genes	[158]

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