In order to investigate whether and how nanoplastic particles in the body interact with antibiotics, the research team led by Lukas Kenner (MedUni Vienna), Barbara Kirchner (University of Bonn) and Oldamur Hollóczki (University of Debrecen) linked a common drug with widely used types of plastic. The focus was on the broad-spectrum antibiotic tetracycline, which is used to treat many bacterial infections, such as those of the respiratory tract, skin or intestines. When it came to plastics, the choice fell on polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS), which are ubiquitous components of packaging materials, as well as nylon 6,6 (N66), which is contained in many textiles such as clothing, carpets, sofa covers and curtains. Nanoplastics are smaller than 0.001millimeters and are considered particularly harmful to humans and the environment due to their small size.

Using complex computer models, the team was able to prove that the nanoplastic particles can bind tetracycline and thus impair the effectiveness of the antibiotic. “The binding was particularly strong with nylon,” emphasizes Lukas Kenner, pointing out a largely underestimated danger indoors: “The micro- and nanoplastic load is around five times higher there than outdoors. Nylon is one of the reasons for this: it is released from textiles and enters the body via respiration, for example.”

Danger of antibiotic resistance

As the study results show, the binding of tetracycline to nanoplastic particles can reduce the biological activity of the antibiotic. At the same time, binding to nanoplastics could lead to the antibiotic being transported to unintended sites in the body, causing it to lose its targeted effect and possibly cause other undesirable effects. “Our finding that the local concentration of antibiotics on the surface of the nanoplastic particles can increase is particularly worrying,” reports Lukas Kenner on another detail from the study. This increase in concentration could lead to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Plastics such as nylon 6,6, but also polystyrene, which bind more strongly to tetracycline, could therefore increase the risk of resistance. “At a time when antibiotic resistance is becoming an ever greater threat worldwide, such interactions must be taken into account,” says Kenner.

The study shows that exposure to nanoplastics is not only a direct health risk, but can also indirectly influence the treatment of diseases. “If nanoplastics reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics, the dosage poses a massive problem,” says Lukas Kenner with a view to future studies looking at the influence of nanoplastics on other drugs.

The new reactor design could be a part of the solution to the pressing problem of emission impacts on the climate and biosphere by enabling more agile and scalable carbon dioxide mitigation strategies.

A study in Nature Energy describes the specialized reactor as having a modular, three-chambered structure with a carefully engineered porous solid electrolyte layer at its core. Haotian Wang, a Rice chemical and biomolecular engineer whose lab has been researching industrial decarbonization and energy conversion and storage solutions, said the work “represents a big milestone in carbon capture from the atmosphere.”

“Our research findings present an opportunity to make carbon capture more cost-effective and practically viable across a wide range of industries,” said Wang, the corresponding author on the study and associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

The device has achieved industrially relevant rates of carbon dioxide regeneration from carbon-containing solutions. Its performance metrics, including its long-term stability and adaptability to different cathode and anode reactions, showcase its potential for wide-scale industrial use.

“One of the major draws of this technology is its flexibility,” said Wang, explaining that it works with different chemistries and can be used to cogenerate hydrogen. “Hydrogen coproduction during direct air capture could translate into dramatically lower capital and operation costs for downstream manufacturing of net-zero fuels or chemicals.”

The new technology offers an alternative to the use of high temperatures in direct air capture processes, which often involve running a mixed gas stream through high-pH liquids in order to filter out carbon dioxide, an acidic gas. This first step of the process ties up the carbon and oxygen atoms in the gas molecules to other compounds in the liquid, forming new bonds of varying degrees of strength depending on the type of chemical used to trap the carbon dioxide. The next major step in the process involves retrieving the carbon dioxide from these solutions, which can be done using either heat, chemical reactions or electrochemical processes.

Zhiwei Fang, a Rice postdoctoral researcher who is a study co-first author, said conventional direct air capture technologies tend to use high-temperature processes to regenerate carbon dioxide from sorbent, or the carbon dioxide-filtering agent.

“Our work focused on using electrical energy instead of thermal energy to regenerate carbon dioxide,” Fang said, adding that the approach has several additional benefits, including it works at room temperature, needs no additional chemicals and generates no unwanted byproducts.

The types of chemicals used to trap the carbon dioxide have different drawbacks and advantages. Amine-based sorbents are the most widely used, in part because they tend to form weaker bonds which means less energy is required to take the carbon dioxide back out of the solution. However, they are highly toxic and unstable. Even though basic water-based solutions using sorbents like sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are a greener alternative, they require much higher temperatures to release the carbon dioxide back out.

“Our reactor can efficiently split carbonate and bicarbonate solutions, producing alkaline absorbent in one chamber and high-purity carbon dioxide in a separate chamber,” said Wang. “Our innovative approach optimizes electrical inputs to efficiently control ion movement and mass transfer, reducing energy barriers.”

Wang said he hopes the research will motivate more industries to pursue sustainable processes and fuel the momentum toward a net-zero future. He added that this and other projects in his lab over the years reflect Rice’s strategic focus on sustainable energy innovation.

“Rice is the place to be if you are passionate about sustainability and energy innovation,” Wang said.

Other authors on the study are former Rice postdoctoral researcher Xiao Zhang and Rice doctoral alumni and former postdoctoral scientists Peng Zhu and Yang Xia.

The research was supported by the Robert A. Welch Foundation (C-2051) and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (2020-71371).

Utilizing cutting-edge machine learning and systems biology, researchers analyzed and correlated huge data sets from flies and humans to identify key metabolites that impact lifespan in both species.Results published online in Nature Communicationssuggest that one of the metabolites, threonine, may hold promise as a potential therapeutic for aging interventions.

“These results would not have been possible without this pioneering approach,” says Buck professor Pankaj Kapahi, PhD, senior author of the paper. “There is a lot of data sitting out there that is not being correlated between species. I think this approach could be a game-changer when it comes to identifying potential interventions to improve human health.”

Threonine has been shown to protect against diabetes in mice. The essential amino acid plays an important role in collagen and elastin production and is also involved in blood clotting, fat metabolism and immune function.

The method — simplified

The work began with former Buck postdoc Tyler Hilsabeck, PhD, crunching data (involving metabolomics, phenotypes and genomics) to analyze 120 metabolites in 160 strains of fruit flies on both restricted and normal diets. The goal was to reveal how different genotypes responded to the diets to influence lifespan and healthspan. “This allowed us to find the ‘needles in the haystack’ when it came to identifying relevant metabolites,” Hilsabeck says.

Vikram Narayan, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow then cross-referenced findings with human data from the massive UK Biobank. “Using the human data allowed us to focus on interesting metabolites to those that are conserved in both species. It also allowed us to uncover the impact of those metabolites in humans,” he says. Importantly, the team then brought those relevant metabolites back into the fly to validate results.

The results

In flies, threonine extended lifespan in a strain-and-sex-specific manner. Individuals with higher levels of threonine-related metabolites had longer, healthier lives. “We’re not saying that threonine is going to work in all conditions,” says Kapahi. “Our research shows it works in subsets of both flies and people. I think most of us have stopped expecting to find a ‘magic-bullet’ intervention for aging. Our method provides another way to develop precision medicine for geroscience.”

The results also include findings that were not so positive for both species. Orotate, which is relatively understudied and has been linked with fat metabolism, was negatively associated with aging. In flies orotate counteracted the positive impact of dietary restriction across every strain of the animals. In humans, orotate was linked to a shorter lifespan.

Larger implications

Kapahi hopes the larger research community will begin employing this method. “So many times we find things that work in worms and flies and then we don’t have the resources to move the basic science forward. This approach allows us to say with a lot more certainty that discoveries are going to be relevant in humans.” Kapahi says this method may reduce the need for studies in mice, something he welcomes.

The study appears in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience.

Olfactory dysfunction, often dismissed as a minor inconvenience, may actually be an early sign of various neurological and bodily diseases, as indicated by this research. “The data are particularly interesting because we had previously found that olfactory enrichment can improve the memory of older adults by 226 percent,” said Leon. “We now know that pleasant scents can decrease inflammation, potentially pointing to the mechanism by which such scents can improve brain health.”

This finding, he added, could hold key implications for mitigating symptoms and possibly even reducing the onset of certain diseases through therapeutic olfactory stimulation.

The study delves into the methodical tracking of 139 medical conditions associated with both olfactory loss and heightened inflammation, uncovering insights into a shared pathway linking these factors. Olfactory loss, which often precedes conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, may serve as an early indicator of disease onset, allowing for more proactive therapeutic approaches.

“It was difficult to track down the studies for so many medical conditions,” said Leon, reflecting on the complexity of linking olfactory loss to such a wide array of disorders. The challenge, he added, underscores the importance of these findings in framing olfactory health as integral to overall well-being.

By showing how olfactory enrichment can mitigate inflammation, this research has laid a foundation for future studies aiming to explore the therapeutic use of scent to address a broader range of medical conditions. “It will be interesting to see if we can ameliorate the symptoms of other medical conditions with olfactory enrichment,” said Leon.

Together with Woo, Leon is now working on a device to deliver olfactory therapy, which could hold promise as a novel, non-invasive way to improve health outcomes.

As science continues to uncover the profound impacts of our senses on health, this research underscores a critical need for further study into olfactory therapies.