Polyethylene terephthalate nanoplastics cause oxidative stress induced cell death in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a common plastic widely used in food and beverage packaging that poses a serious risk to human health and the environment due to the continual rise in its production and usage. After being produced and used, PET accumulates in the environment and breaks down into nanoplastics (NPs), which are then consumed by humans through water and food sources. The threats to human health and the environment posed by PET-NPs are of great concern worldwide, yet little is known about their biological impacts. Herein, the smallest sized PET-NPs so far (56 nm) with an unperturbed PET structure were produced by a modified dilution-precipitation method and their potential cytotoxicity was evaluated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Exposure to PET-NPs decreased cell viability due to oxidative stress induction revealed by the increased expression levels of stress response related-genes as well as increased lipid peroxidation. Cell death induced by PET-NP exposure was mainly through apoptosis, while autophagy had a protective role.

Keywords:

• Nanoplastics
• polyethylene terephthalate
• oxidative stress
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• cell death

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Turkish Marine Environment Protection Agency (TURMEPA) and Mr. Murat ÇAĞLAR for the supply of pristine PET material, and ATOMIKA Technical Devices Company, Istanbul for sharing laboratory facilities. We would also like to thank Prof. David T. THOMAS, M.D. for critical reading of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, NK, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Maltepe University Scientific Research Commission.