Zhang Long, Xue Manyu, Xin Qi, Tang Jie, Liu Yin, Bian Zhengyang, Zheng Xiaoping
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing and Recycling of Non-ferrous Metals, School of Material Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, Gansu, China.
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing and Recycling of Non-ferrous Metals, School of Material Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, Gansu, China.
Anal Chim Acta. 2025 Aug 8;1362:344184. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2025.344184. Epub 2025 May 13.
The increasing prevalence of nanoplastics (NPs) in the environment has raised significant concerns about their potential for bioaccumulation and toxicity. However, most toxicity studies currently focus on pristine polystyrene NPs (PSNPs), overlooking the impact of environmental weathering on their surface chemistry and interactions with biological systems. This study adopts an aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-based approach to quantify how surface functionalization affects cellular uptake, a critical step in assessing NPs toxicity. We synthesized carboxyl (-COOH) and amino (-NH) functionalized PSNPs through emulsion polymerization, incorporating an AIE fluorescent label to enable precise quantification and to distinguish the NPs from endogenous biomolecules. Using mouse macrophages (RAW264.7) as a model, we demonstrated that surface carboxylation significantly enhanced cellular uptake compared to the original NPs. This enhanced uptake effect is likely due to the increased interaction between the functionalized NPs and the cell surface receptors. Quantitative fluorescence analysis and flow cytometry revealed that PSNP-COOH exhibited the highest uptake and the most pronounced effects on cell toxicity. This AIE-based approach offers a more environmentally relevant model for evaluating NPs toxicity, understanding the importance of considering surface modifications when assessing the biological effects of NP exposure.
纳米塑料（NPs）在环境中的日益普遍，引发了人们对其生物累积潜力和毒性的重大担忧。然而，目前大多数毒性研究都集中在原始聚苯乙烯纳米塑料（PSNPs）上，忽视了环境风化对其表面化学性质以及与生物系统相互作用的影响。本研究采用基于聚集诱导发光（AIE）的方法来量化表面功能化如何影响细胞摄取，这是评估纳米塑料毒性的关键步骤。我们通过乳液聚合合成了羧基（-COOH）和氨基（-NH）功能化的PSNPs，并引入了AIE荧光标记，以实现精确量化并区分纳米塑料与内源性生物分子。以小鼠巨噬细胞（RAW264.7）为模型，我们证明与原始纳米塑料相比，表面羧基化显著增强了细胞摄取。这种摄取增强效应可能是由于功能化纳米塑料与细胞表面受体之间的相互作用增加所致。定量荧光分析和流式细胞术表明，PSNP-COOH表现出最高的摄取量以及对细胞毒性最显著的影响。这种基于AIE的方法为评估纳米塑料毒性提供了一个更符合环境实际情况的模型，有助于理解在评估纳米塑料暴露的生物学效应时考虑表面修饰的重要性。
