Coronas of micro/nano plastics: a key determinant in their risk assessments

Abstract

As an emerging pollutant in the life cycle of plastic products, micro/nanoplastics (M/NPs) are increasingly being released into the natural environment. Substantial concerns have been raised regarding the environmental and health impacts of M/NPs. Although diverse M/NPs have been detected in natural environment, most of them display two similar features, i.e.,high surface area and strong binding affinity, which enable extensive interactions between M/NPs and surrounding substances. This results in the formation of coronas, including eco-coronas and bio-coronas, on the plastic surface in different media. In real exposure scenarios, corona formation on M/NPs is inevitable and often displays variable and complex structures. The surface coronas have been found to impact the transportation, uptake, distribution, biotransformation and toxicity of particulates. Different from conventional toxins, packages on M/NPs rather than bare particles are more dangerous. We, therefore, recommend seriously consideration of the role of surface coronas in safety assessments. This review summarizes recent progress on the eco–coronas and bio-coronas of M/NPs, and further discusses the analytical methods to interpret corona structures, highlights the impacts of the corona on toxicity and provides future perspectives.

Doped Graphene To Mimic the Bacterial NADH Oxidase for One-Step NAD+ Supplementation in Mammals

“…The biological fate of nanomaterials is largely determined by their morphology and surface corona. 60 For instance, the comparison of MoS 2 biodistribution in transgenic mice with fibrinogen (Fg), apolipoprotein E (ApoE), immunoglobulin M (IgM), or complement 3 (C3) deficiency provides convincing support that ApoE binding on MoS 2 nanosheets dictates their accumulation in liver sinusoid and splenic red pulp. 61,62 In this study, 12 apolipoproteins were identified in the 320 corona proteins of FeNGR (Table S6).…”

Investigating nanoplastics toxicity using advanced stem cell-based intestinal and lung in vitro models

“…proteins, lipids and carbohydrates, that adhere to the particles' surface (Docter et al, 2015). As the adherence of these macromolecules will change the surface properties of the particles and therefore their interaction with biological systems (Monopoli et al, 2012;Cao et al, 2022), the possible role of the corona has to be considered during in vitro testing (Allen et al, 2006). For example, Abdelkhaliq et al (2018) analyzed the protein corona on different PS nanoplastics via LC-MS/MS and reported differences based on the surface modification of the particles, which in turn impacted the uptake rates of the nanoplastics.…”

Microplastics and Nano-Plastics: From Initiation to Termination

“…MNPs absorb proteins from the body and form protein coronas (Treuel et al, 2014). Unlike MNPs that are exposed, those that react with cells are generally already enveloped by a protein corona (Cao et al, 2022), further modifying the properties of MNPs (Tenzer et al, 2013), and causing cellular interactions and enhanced toxicity (Nasser & Lynch, 2016). MNPs of PS easily permeate lipid bilayer membranes, inducing alterations in membrane structure and eventually affecting cell function (Rossi et al, 2014).…”