期刊
COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY C-TOXICOLOGY & PHARMACOLOGY
卷 271, 期 -, 页码 -出版社
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpc.2023.109699
关键词
Microplastics; Behaviour; Apoptosis; Neurotransmitter; Neurotoxicity; Molecular docking
This study aimed to assess the neurotoxicity and underlying biomolecular mechanism of different concentrations of polystyrene microplastics on zebrafish embryos. The results showed that the embryos could ingest and bioaccumulate microplastics without causing morphological changes and lethality. However, microplastic exposure led to altered swimming behavior patterns, increased apoptosis, abnormal neurotransmitter levels, down-regulation of bdnf gene expression, and disrupted downstream apoptotic signaling.
A ubiquitous presence of microplastics and nanoplastics created a new toxicological research area arising concept of plastic rivers. But, the precise molecular mechanisms by which its exposure affects developmental neuro-toxicity are poorly understood. Hence, in the present investigation, healthy zebrafish embryos were exposed to different concentrations of 500 nm polystyrene microplastics (0.1 ppm, 1 ppm and 10 ppm) to assess the neurotoxicity and the underlying biomolecular mechanism. On the last day of exposure, behaviour, accumula-tion, embryotoxicity, acridine orange staining, antioxidant enzyme assay, acetylcholinesterase assay, nitric oxide (NO) estimation, along with neurotransmitter (serotonin, dopamine) quantification and gene expression using qRT-PCR (bdnf, p53, bcl-2, caspase-3, caspase-9) were performed. As a result, we found that zebrafish embryos ingest and bioaccumulate microplastic without causing any morphological changes and lethality. The survival and hatching rates of the embryos were also unaffected but the swimming behaviour patterns were found to be altered. Further, acridine orange staining exhibited more apoptosis in treated groups with increased p53, caspase-3, caspase-9 and decreased bcl-2 gene expression. Moreover, polystyrene microplastics exposure resulted in reduced acetylcholinesterase activity leading to elevated NO concentration along with altered serotonin and dopamine levels and subsequently leading to down-regulated bdnf gene expression and modulated downstream apoptotic signalling, confirming the neurotoxicity potential of microplastics causing neuronal dysfunction. This study also compared the binding affinities between styrene and human proteins (Bdnf, p53 and Bcl-2) using bioinformatics methods, and docking results showed negative binding energy resulting in high binding affinities of Bcl-2 then p53 and Bdnf with styrene.
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据