Authors
Olga V Kuznetsova, Andrei R Timerbaev
Published in
Analytica chimica acta. Volume 1425. Pages 346323. Dec 01, 2026. Epub Sep 25, 2026.
Abstract
Microplastics (MPs) are currently the focus of scrupulous international action as persistent man-made pollutants. Upon entering the body, MPs interact with proteins to form a biocorona that influences their biological fate and toxicity.
Here, we incubated real-world MPs, collected from different marine environments, with human serum and used three complementary MS setups to (i) assess the protein-binding kinetics; (ii) identify the major proteins dominating the corona; and (iii) assess the depletion of minor metal-containing proteins due to attachment to MPs. The results of isotopic ratio MS analysis showed definite time-dependent isotopic alterations of MPs related to corona formation. Using MS-based proteomics revealed fundamental similarities in the corona compositions of seawater and sedimentary MPs exposed to human serum. According to metal-specific ICP-sector field MS measurements, the bio-MP interactions involve a substantial proportion of copper in the serum proteome (>30%) and may thereby induce a notable disruption of its homeostasis and functions.
This study proves the importance of profiling human serum proteins in MP coronas and suggests that binding of low-abundance metal-containing proteins may modulate their biological functions.
PMID:
42951559
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 29 Oct 2026.
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