A multimodal imaging platform with Raman spectroscopy to disentangle the health risks of nanoplastic

微小的塑料颗粒和纤维（“微塑料”）源于塑料材料的降解和磨损，是空气、饮用水、食物和土壤中广泛存在的污染物。塑料有可能释放出更小的颗粒——比一毫米小1000到10万倍（“纳米塑料”）——但由于缺乏能够进行此类测量的现有技术，这一点尚未在环境中得到证实。纳米塑料被认为比微塑料对公众健康的威胁更大，因为它可以进入细胞并引起毒性。此外，纳米塑料在空气和水中沉淀前的寿命更长，因此容易受到长距离运输的影响，可能会在全球范围内运输。然而，我们不知道它是否会发生，会发生多少，也不知道它在环境和生物环境中会产生什么影响。我们无法理解我们无法测量的东西。该提案旨在提高英国的分析能力，通过获得高度专业化的成像和显微镜平台，使纳米塑料颗粒的检测和表征成为可能。这将通过两种类型的集成显微镜，原子力和扫描近场光学显微镜来实现。这样的平台还将通过不同类型的光学显微镜利用塑料的特异性来突出潜在的微和纳米塑料，从而改进样品中微和纳米塑料的检测，从而为指导进一步分析的地方开辟了捷径。欧洲只有少数几个平台集成了所有这些功能，没有一个是用于微塑料和纳米塑料的应用。这将用于回答有关纳米塑料在空气、人体组织、实验细胞模型中的普遍性、类型和毒性以及污染物、微生物、细胞和微纳米塑料之间的相互作用等科学问题。平台上产生的数据将影响行业和政府，通过指出针对创新解决方案和政策的问题塑料。微塑料和纳米塑料污染水平预计将随着塑料生产的继续增加而增加。因此，至关重要的是开始填补我们对健康影响的理解方面的巨大空白。

Microscopic plastic particles and fibres ('microplastic'), originating from the degradation and wear of plastic materials, are a widespread pollutant in air, drinking water, food, and soils. There is potential for plastic to release even smaller particles - 1000 to 100,000 times smaller than a millimetre ('nanoplastic') - but this has not been confirmed in the environment due to a lack of available technology capable of such measurements. Nanoplastic is believed to be a greater public health threat than microplastic because it can enter cells and cause toxicity. Furthermore, nanoplastic will have longer lifetimes in air and water, before settling, and is therefore susceptible to long range transport, potentially around the globe. However, we have no idea on whether and how much occurs, or what it can do in environmental and biological contexts. We cannot understand what we cannot measure. This proposal aims to advance the analytical capacity in the UK, enabling the detection and characterisation of nanoplastic particles through the acquisition of a highly specialised imaging and microscopy platform. This will be achieved by two types of integrated microscopies, Atomic Force and Scanning Nearfield Optical Microscopy. Such a platform will also improve the detection of micro- and nanoplastic in samples, by exploiting plastic-specific properties through different types of light microscopy to highlight potential micro- and nanoplastic, thereby shortcutting where to direct further analysis. There are only a few platforms in Europe which integrate all these capabilities, none for the application of micro- and nanoplastics. This will be used to answer scientific questions on the prevalence, types, and toxicity of nanoplastics in air, human tissues, experimental cell models, and on the interactions between contaminants, microbes, cells, and micro- and nanoplastic. The data generated on the platform will impact industry and government, by indicating problem plastics for targeting innovative solutions and policy. The level of micro- and nanoplastic pollution is predicted to increase as plastic production continues to do so. It is therefore critical to start filling the huge gaps in our understanding of the impacts on health.