Role of Environmental Weathering and Gastrointestinal Digestion on the Bioavailability and Toxicity of Microplastic and Cadmium Mixtures - A Platform for Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Training

环境风化和胃肠消化对微塑料和镉混合物的生物利用度和毒性的作用——本科生跨学科培训平台

• 批准号: 10580388
• 负责人: Jorge Gonzalez Estrella
• 金额: $ 44.45万
• 依托单位: OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY STILLWATER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-12-20 至 2025-11-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10580388
• 关键词: Accidents; Address; Adverse effects; Affect; Affinity; Attention; Binding; Biological Availability; Caco-2 Cells; Cadmium; Cells; Cellular biology; Chemicals; Chemistry; Collaborations; Communities; Consumption; Data; Digestion; Dose; Ecosystem; Endocytosis; Endosomes; Environment; Environmental Engineering technology; Environmental Pollutants; Exposure to; Fishes; Food Contamination; Fresh Water; Gastrointestinal Process; Goals; Graduate Degree; Health; Health Hazards; Heavy Metals; Homeostasis; Human; Ingestion; Interdisciplinary Study; Intestines; Knowledge; Link; Liquid substance; Lysosomes; Metabolism; Metals; Methodology; Mineral Waters; Modification; Morphology; Oklahoma; Organism; Physiological; Physiology; Plastics; Process; Reporting; Research; Research Personnel; Risk; Role; Route; Scientist; Specific qualifier value; Spectrum Analysis; Students; Surface; System; Testing; Toxic effect; Toxicology; Trace metal; Training; UV Radiation Exposure; Water; Weather; World Health Organization; acute toxicity; aged; aquatic organism; aqueous; bioaccumulation; career; cellular imaging; design; environmental chemical; environmental chemistry; environmental toxicology; gastrointestinal; gastrointestinal imaging; graduate student; innovation; intestinal epithelium; metal metabolism; meter; novel; pollutant; skills; student training; theories; tool; ultraviolet; undergraduate student; uptake

Project Summary Microplastics (MPs) represent an emerging human health hazard as either a direct environmental contaminant or as a component of other mixed pollutants. Microplastics in the environment are exposed to ultraviolet radiation (UV) that change their chemical, morphological composition, and reactivity. Microplastics frequently interact with other heavy metals (e.g., cadmium (Cd)) in contaminated aquatic systems. Fish are continuously exposed to UV-degraded MPs directly by accidental ingestion or indirectly by ingesting pray contaminated with MPs. Humans are mainly exposed to MPs via ingestion of contaminated food and water. The fate of MPs during digestion is largely unknown. The key barrier to advancing our understanding of the health risk of MPs is a lack of information linking MPs’ environmental chemical transformations with bioaccumulation of MPs, and specific health impacts. Our overall goal is to involve undergraduate researchers in an interdisciplinary environmental engineering and toxicology project that targets key knowledge gaps of MP transformation, reactivity, bioavailability, and toxicity to develop a strong set of skills in undergraduate students that encourages to pursue a graduate degree and career in STEM. The overarching objective is to use quantifiable approaches and innovative tools to better understand the role of environmental weathering and gastrointestinal digestion on the bioavailability and toxicity of MPs and MPs and cadmium mixtures. We hypothesize that ultraviolet weathering of MPs increases sorption of legacy pollutants (i.e., Cd) and gastrointestinal processes affect their bioavailability and toxicity at the intestinal epithelium. Moreover, considering that MPs are taken up via endocytosis we propose that MPs can interfere with endosome and lysosome function, specifically affecting essential trace metal metabolism. To test this hypothesis, we propose the following interconnected aims: Specific Aim 1: Evaluate the transformation and reactivity of ultraviolet-aged micro- and nanoplastics in freshwater, commercial mineral water, and gastrointestinal (GI) fluids (i.e., during digestion); Specific Aim 2: Evaluate the bioavailability and acute toxicity of MPs and MPs/Cd mixtures in intestinal cells form fish RTgutGC cells, and human Caco-2 cells. The goal of aim 2 is to investigate the link between MPs type (size and composition) and chemical modifications (aim 1) to bioavailability and acute toxicity of MPs alone or in combination with Cd. Specific Aim 3: Evaluate the physiological impact of MPs on intestinal cells: using data from aim 1 we will select MPs with higher reactivity and sorption capability and using data from aim 2 we will select subtoxic but detectable doses of MPs and MPs/Cd mixtures and evaluate their impact on essential trace metal homeostasis and metabolism. Our results will contribute to bridge the knowledge gap between chemical transformations of MPs in the environment and implications on fish and human health. Our project will serve as a platform for integrating undergraduate students into multidisciplinary research and will allow them to acquire multiple skills spanning from environmental chemistry to cell biology and toxicology.

项目概要 微塑料 (MP) 作为一种直接环境污染物代表了一种新兴的人类健康危害 或作为环境中其他混合污染物的组成部分暴露于紫外线下。 辐射（紫外线）会经常改变微塑料的化学成分、形态成分和反应性。 鱼类持续与受污染的水生系统中的其他重金属（例如镉 (Cd)）相互作用。 通过意外摄入直接暴露于紫外线降解的MP，或通过摄入被污染的祈祷而间接接触 人类主要通过摄入受污染的食物和水而接触 MP。 消化过程中的主要障碍尚不清楚。 缺乏将 MP 的环境化学转化与 MP 的生物累积联系起来的信息，并且 我们的总体目标是让本科研究人员参与跨学科研究。 针对 MP 转化关键知识差距的环境工程和毒理学项目， 反应性、生物利用度和毒性，以培养本科生的一套强大的技能 鼓励攻读 STEM 研究生学位和职业生涯，首要目标是使用可量化的方法。 更好地了解环境风化和胃肠道作用的方法和创新工具 消化对 MP 和 MP 与镉混合物的生物利用度和毒性的影响。 MP 的紫外线风化会增加对遗留污染物（即镉）和胃肠道过程的吸附 此外，考虑到MP被吸收，影响它们在肠上皮的生物利用度和毒性。 通过内吞作用，我们认为 MP 可以干扰内体和溶酶体功能，特别是影响 为了检验这一假设，我们提出以下相互关联的目标： 具体目标 1：评估紫外线老化微塑料和纳米塑料在环境中的转化和反应性 淡水、商业矿泉水和胃肠 (GI) 液体（即消化过程中）； 评估鱼肠细胞中 MP 和 MP/Cd 混合物的生物利用度和急性毒性 RTgutGC 细胞和人类 Caco-2 细胞 目标 2 的目标是研究 MP 类型（大小）之间的联系。 成分）和化学修饰（目标 1）对 MP 单独或在其中的生物利用度和急性毒性 与 Cd 结合。具体目标 3：使用数据评估 MP 对肠道细胞的生理影响。 从目标 1 中，我们将选择具有更高反应性和吸附能力的 MP，并使用目标 2 中的数据，我们将 选择低毒但可检测剂量的 MP 和 MP/Cd 混合物，并评估它们对基本痕量的影响 我们的研究结果将有助于弥合化学之间的知识差距。 我们的项目将作为环境中 MP 的转变以及对鱼类和人类健康的影响。 一个将本科生融入多学科研究的平台，使他们能够获得 从环境化学到细胞生物学和毒理学的多种技能。