Study: Microplastic contamination in human brains has increased 50 percent between 2016 and 2024

meadow_wind

Dagobah Resident
FOTCM Member
I don't know how relevant this study is because of the lack of information regarding the samples taken. However, this should serve as a warning.


  • A study in Nature Medicine reveals a 50 % surge in microplastic contamination in human brains between 2016 and 2024, with brain tissue containing nearly 8 times more plastic than the liver or kidneys.
  • Microplastics in dementia patients’ brains were 5x higher than in healthy brains, with sharp plastic shards found near inflamed areas tied to cognitive decline — raising concerns about neurological damage.
  • Microplastics (from packaging, clothing, tires, etc.) now permeate air, water, food and human organs. Polyethylene (used in bags/food packaging) makes up 75 percent of brain contaminants.
  • Rising dementia rates coincide with plastic proliferation. Microplastics may weaken the blood-brain barrier, trigger inflammation and physically harm brain cells — even in healthy individuals.
  • While complete avoidance is impossible, solutions include filtering water, reducing plastic use, improving indoor air quality and supporting detox diets. Policy changes (production limits, biodegradable alternatives) are critical to curb the crisis.


The paper: Bioaccumulation of microplastics in decedent human brains - Nature Medicine

Methods​

Human tissue samples​

The same tissue collection protocol at the UNM OMI was used for 2016 and 2024. Small pieces of representative organs (3–5 cm3) were routinely collected at autopsy and stored in 10% formalin. Additionally, decedent samples from a cohort with confirmed dementia (n = 12) were included, also collected at the UNM OMI under identical procedures. Limited demographic data (age, sex, race/ethnicity, cause of death and date of death) were available due to the conditions of specimen approval; age of death, race/ethnicity and sex were relatively consistent across cohorts (Supplementary Table 1). Additional brain samples (n = 28) were obtained from repositories on the East Coast of the United States to provide a greater range for the year of death (going back to 1997). All studies were approved by the respective Institutional Review Boards.
 
Perhaps this could help:

Wax moth caterpillar spit could be used to break down plastic waste

The saliva of certain caterpillars has been discovered to break down the world's most common type of plastic.

Mass producing the proteins in the saliva could provide a cheap and effective way to break down polyethylene waste.

Wax worms could provide a new way to combat the plastic pollution crisis.

European researchers have found that the saliva of wax moth larvae is capable of breaking down the most common type of plastic, polyethylene. They identified two enzymes that can break apart the plastic's long polymers into smaller chains.

Dr Federica Bertocchini, who co-authored a paper revealing the discovery in Nature Communications, says that these molecules could one day be applied on an industrial scale to degrade plastic waste.

'This research has opened up several new paths that need to be deeply investigated before these enzymes could be used to tackle plastic pollution.'

'However, as the enzymes can be produced in the lab, it is promising for any future applications. This could include use in waste management facilities to degrade collected plastic, and we could imagine its use in the home further down the line.'

'Before we get to this point, however, we need to know more about these enzymes, including the byproducts of plastic oxidation.'

What are wax worms?

Wax worms are the caterpillars of multiple wax moth species such as Galleria mellonella. They are just a couple of millimetres long at hatching but grow up to three centimetres before transitioning to the next stage of their life cycle.

Wax worms are a pest of beehives, as they tunnel and chew through beeswax to feed on pollen and the shed skins of bees, and it was Federica's interest in beekeeping that initially led to her discovering the potential of wax worms to break down plastic.

'Beekeeping has been my hobby for many years,' says Federica. 'At the end of the season, beekeepers usually take some empty hives into a storage room to put them back into the field in the spring.'

'In 2012, I did this and found that my stored honeycombs were plagued with wax worms. I cleaned the honeycombs and put the worms into a polyethylene bag, only to discover a short time later that the bag was riddled with holes.'

After carrying out initial studies, Federica found that the polyethylene had been oxidised, rather than being chewed through. G. mellonella's gut microbes had already been identified as having the ability to degrade polyethylene, but their results suggested that a different mechanism was at work.

The breakdown was much more rapid than polyethylene being broken down by bacteria and fungi, which can take from weeks to months to achieve partial breakdown. In many cases, it also requires the plastic to be pre-treated with UV light or high temperatures.

As polyethylene accounts for around 40% of all plastics, faster and more efficient ways to degrade it could be a significant advance in dealing with plastic pollution.

How do wax worms degrade plastic?

Following previous research that revealed polyethylene film could be broken down by wax worm saliva, the researchers analysed the secretion to identify the proteins within it, identifying a number of potential targets.

After producing pure solutions of each protein, the researchers tested their individual abilities on the plastic. They found that two enzymes, which the scientists named Demetra and Ceres after the ancient Greek and Roman goddesses of agriculture, were effective at breaking the plastic polymers down into smaller fragments.

'We're not sure why the wax worms produce these enzymes,' Federica says. 'It could be that similarities between beeswax and polyethylene allow the larvae to break down both with the same enzymes.'

'Alternatively, the worm might be able to break down plastic additives that help it maintain its shape and structure. Many additives have an aromatic structure similar to compounds that plants produce to defend themselves from insects, and lepidopterans like the wax worms must have ways to neutralise these.'

In the future, the mass production of enzymes similar to Demetra and Ceres could be the first stage in degrading plastic waste. By breaking the inert polymers apart and adding in additional elements, such as oxygen, the fragments can then be more easily broken down by a variety of microbes.

The resulting products, which depends on the type of starting plastic, could then be used to make new materials or be metabolised further by the microbes themselves and so removing them from the system.

The researchers now hope to continue investigating these enzymes to find out how they work, and the steps that are necessary to break down polyethylene. They also hope to find similar proteins, of which little is currently known.

'Enzymes with sequence similarities with Demetra and Ceres could be tested in the future,' Federica adds. 'It is also possible that other insect larvae which can degrade polyethylene and polystyrene may possess similar enzymes, offering a range of potential pathways to degrade these materials.'


Fireworm (a waste product of a wax moth)

Wax moth (Galleria Mellonella - large wax moth, bee moth, wax moth) is a moth known to all beekeepers as a pest of the moth family, but not many people know that the wax moth and its larvae are not only the worst pests, but also a unique biologically active product.

Wax moth larvae are the only living creatures on our planet that feed on wax, but this is not pure wax, but honeycombs soaked in all beekeeping products, containing all vitamins and microelements. In these amazing creatures, nature encoded a great biological secret, incredible power and the ability to restore a huge number of processes in the human body.

The wax moth larvae live in the hive together with the bees. At the first stage of growth, the larvae consume honey, then move on to bee bread and wax mass. Eating all these biologically active beekeeping products, the wax moth larva accumulates their biological potential, which we will subsequently receive in the form of an alcohol extract. The larva of the wax moth in the process of life produces a special enzyme (cerrase) for the digestion of wax, one of the most inert substances in nature. Studies have shown that this enzyme in the alcoholic extract of the wax moth is able to dissolve the fatty component of the tuberculosis bacterium membrane, as a result of which it becomes less protected and more susceptible to the action of drugs.

It turns out that the wax moth extract is primarily an old folk remedy and has been used for human health for a long time. In ancient Greece and Egypt, the wax moth (moth) was called the "golden butterfly", preparations based on it were used for tuberculosis, and were also used as an effective anti-aging agent.


 
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