3 ms·
The most important question is whether they are cleared over time or if they are bioaccumulative like heavy metals. Can the body clear them? Is there a way to
by api 4y ago
The most important question is whether they are cleared over time or if they are bioaccumulative like heavy metals. Can the body clear them?
Is there a way to clear them at all? Even with medical assistance? There is chelation therapy that can clear some heavy metals. Anything like that for nanoplastic?
I have no idea so I submit the question to the hive mind.
- bookofjoe 4y agoRetired academic neurosurgical anesthesiologist [38 years; https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5DdrMc8AAAAJ&hl=en https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5DdrMc8AAAAJ&hl=en] here. My best guess is that once inorganic materials such as nanoparticles enter the cerebral circulation and lodge in brain tissue, they are there permanently.
- dmbche 4y agoWhat kind of interaction would you guess the particles would have with the brain after passing the barrier? I know heavy metals have stong interactions, but I wonder how bad plastic is, really - not that it would be good of course.
- bookofjoe 4y agoI wouldn't even guess as to the nature of interaction of cerebral cortex/hypothalamus/brain stem/etc. with plastic nanoparticles — but I doubt that it would be a benefit. As Deckard remarked in another context, more likely than not a hazard.
- kortex 4y agoDepends a lot on the size, polymer, and even geometry (thread, shard, or just blob). Unlike metals, aliphatic plastics have little electronic interaction. My intuition as a chemist is most will just hang out in the lipid membrane or in vacuoles not really interacting with biology much. But it could also be worse, such as disrupting protein folding, messing with DNA replication, or triggering chronic low-grade inflammatory response. We don't really know at this time which is why we need studies like TFA.
- BaculumMeumEst 4y agoIf this were the case wouldn't it be low-hanging fruit to study some cadavers to investigate?
- bookofjoe 4y agoIndeed it would, and because of the topical nature of the problem publication in a top journal would likely occur.
- bookofjoe 4y agoWhile we wait: >Brain damage and behavioural disorders in fish induced by plastic nanoparticles delivered through the food chain https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10813-0 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10813-0"
- walleeee 4y agoAlso hermit crabs https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32343937/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32343937/