microPLAstox

Inspiration

There is increasing evidence to suggest that foodstuffs, beverages and drinking water may be contaminated by nanoplastics, thereby raising questions of human exposure and the health impact. Our understanding of the fate, uptake and potentially harmful effects of these plastic particles in humans constitutes a major knowledge gap, making it difficult to carry out proper science-based risk assessment and management. The gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) is the first physical and biological barrier in the human body, but is also a portal of entry and a target for nanoplastics. However, their impact on the human GIT is to date largely unknown.

Innovation

microPLAstox will fulfil the need to consider nanoparticles and bio-nanoparticles to which humans are exposed and will undertake innovative multiscale monitoring in order to deliver a comprehensive health hazard assessment. Focus will be given to in vitro models recapitulating both human digestive conditions (upper/lower GIT) and the gut-liver axis.

Collecting nanoplastics from the natural environment is difficult due to their low mass concentration and the lack of established withdrawal pre-concentration procedures. Furthermore, to establish the link between nanoparticle toxicity and their bioaccumulation, absorption and/or translocation, plastic particles must be traceable and localizable, thus demonstrating the need for labelled nanoparticles. Furthermore, we will consider pristine nanoparticles and bio-nanoparticles, acting as a proxy for direct sources of exposure (e.g. food containers), as well as weathered nanoparticles to mimic environmental exposure.

Using an in vitro integrated approach recapitulating the upper and lower human GIT, in combination with intestinal and hepatic cell models and their crosstalk, microPLAstox aims to determine the fate, uptake and toxicity of such particulate plastics after oral exposure.

Impact

microPLAstox will lead to a better understanding of plastic exposure and human health hazards. In line with the European and North American 3R rules aiming to minimize the number of animals used for research and promote the development of alternative in vitro methods, microPLAstox will contribute to the development a new methodology for the assessment of health hazards. As a further innovative insight of clinical relevance, microPLAstox will compare the toxicity of nanoplastics/bio-nanoplastics in healthy vs at-risk overweight/obese populations to mimic the increasing rate of metabolic/intestinal pathologies worldwide.

With its expected outputs, microPLAstox will develop a generic framework for nanoplastics/bio-nanoplastics and human health. It will achieve a thorough understanding and comparison of the fate, uptake and effects of nanoparticles/bio-nanoparticles on the impairment of gut and gut-liver axis homeostasis and provide analytical methods and monitoring strategies for nanoparticles/bio-nanoparticles within biological fluids and tissues. microPLAstox will not only provide scientific outcomes on the health hazards of oral exposure to nanoplastics/bio-nanoplastics but there also has a high potential for innovation breakthroughs, particularly in the fields of new experimental methods, instruments, measurement techniques and data analysis routines.