Supplement that binds to microplastics may remove them from our body

Microplastics are ubiquitous in our environment, but we’re still figuring out what effect they have on our health, if any watchwaterrr/Adobe Stock A postbiotic may limit our absorption of microplastics, according to the first human trial of a microplastic-removal supplement. It uses the rough surface of dead bacteria to attract microplastics, preventing them from entering cells. Microplastics, which are less than 5 millimetres long, are ubiquitous in the environment and have been detected throughout the human body. Research has shown that people with arterial plaques containing microplastics are more than four times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke than those with plastic-free plaques. Higher concentrations of microplastics have also been reported in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. They then incubated microplastics and Qi601 together and found the plastic particles stuck to the walls’ rough surfaces. To gauge whether this would work in the body, they added nanoplastics – smaller than 0.001 millimetres – and Qi601 to fluids resembling different parts of the digestive system and found that up to 92 per cent of them spontaneously bound to the postbiotic. The researchers also exposed human intestinal-like cells to nanoplastics with and without the postbiotic and found that when Qi601 wasn’t present, nanoplastics accumulated within cells and on their surfaces. When Qi601 was added, significantly less nanoplastics were visible inside or on the cells, suggesting that the postbiotic mopped them up before they could be absorbed. Plastic particles (round) sticking to the rough surfaces of dead bacteria’s cell walls Quorum Innovations In another part of the experiment, the researchers wanted to see whether Qi601 could remove nanoplastics already inside cells. They first exposed cells to nanoplastics in the lab for 24 hours and later added Qi601, which reduced the number of plastic particles inside the cells by 43 per cent. This seems to happen by Qi601 capturing plastic when it is transported in and out of cells during a process called vesicle recycling. Finally, participants chewed commercial gum, which releases numerous microplastic particles into saliva, until they had collected 10 millilitres of saliva. The researchers then repeated the experiment but placed 10 milligrams of powdered Qi601 in the participants’ mouths after 5 seconds of chewing. Analysis of the saliva from one participant showed 2152 freely floating plastic particles after chewing gum alone, compared with 185 when Qi601 was added. “Our results represent the first demonstration of microplastics being bound by a microplastic mitigant in [people],” says Berke.