Abstract
Submillimetre-sized plastic particles (microplastics and nanoplastics) of waste origin in the environment have been repeatedly suggested in recent years to have severe impact on living organisms. While the uptake of these materials has been unequivocally evidenced for animals, so far no adverse effects have been observed in the corresponding animal experiments. In this study, we show that nanoplastics are prone to interact with proteins, and this interaction fundamentally changes the functionally crucial secondary structure of these biomolecules, and thereby denaturates them. These results show, for the first time, that the interplay between plastic waste and biological matter can induce significant cellular and thereby ecological damages. Observing these remarkable microscopic level changes highlights the urgent need to extend investigating the effects of these materials through further modelling and molecular biological methods.
Highlights
Submillimetre-sized plastic particles of waste origin in the environment have been repeatedly suggested in recent years to have severe impact on living organisms
It is necessary to uncover the interactions of nanoplastics with those biomolecules that occur within cells, since such knowledge will aid us assessing the extent of the structural and functional damage these waste materials can cause in living organisms and in the environment
In the present paper we reveal molecular level effects of nanoplastics on living matter, and demonstrate that the interference of these waste materials with the self-organization of biomolecules through template effects can alter the secondary structure of proteins
Summary
Submillimetre-sized plastic particles (microplastics and nanoplastics) of waste origin in the environment have been repeatedly suggested in recent years to have severe impact on living organisms. We show that nanoplastics are prone to interact with proteins, and this interaction fundamentally changes the functionally crucial secondary structure of these biomolecules, and thereby denaturates them These results show, for the first time, that the interplay between plastic waste and biological matter can induce significant cellular and thereby ecological damages. It was argued recently that the more realistic environmental risk arises from even smaller particles with sizes below 100 nm, generally called nanoplastics[4,10] These particles are at least two orders of magnitude smaller than eukaryote cells, and they can potentially alter living matter on the subcellular or molecular level. In the present paper we reveal molecular level effects of nanoplastics on living matter, and demonstrate that the interference of these waste materials with the self-organization of biomolecules through template effects can alter the secondary structure of proteins
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