For the first time, scientists have shown that an established blood cleaning procedure could rid the human body of small plastic particles, offering hope for new detox solutions in the midst of rising global infection.
Study: Therapeutic Aferesis: A promising method to remove microplastics? Image Credit: Sivstock Studio / Shutterstock
The rising use of plastics is associated with massive and widespread environmental pollution with plastics. A lot of evidence suggests that they have entered into living organisms in their degraded form, including the human body. A recent article in the magazine Brain Medicine reports on the feasibility of removing such forms of plastics with the help of an established technique called therapeutic Aeresis.
Introduction
Microplastics and Nanoplastics are forms of plastic with largest diameters of 1 μm -5 mm and <1 urn in the largest diameter respectively. Together they are dubbed.
MNPs can be by -products from commercial production cycles involving goods such as pharmaceutical formulations or cosmetics. They can also represent a degradation phase of waste plastic.
MNP exists all over the world, including marine and forest environments. Recent research strongly points to their threat to human health and may link them to multiple health problems. The scientific paper notes that due to current methodological limitations, it is often more accurate to speak of MNPs or MNP-like structures, which MNPs can include in combination with other molecules such as proteins, and that reports on MNP-neat in tissues must be interpreted with some caution. These include cardiometabolic diseases (such as stroke, heart conditions, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome), cancer, infertility, dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders.
Such disorders can be activated or accelerated by the presence of MNPs. For example, some scientists state that MNPs that are absorbed by adrenal tissue can disrupt the normal production of adrenal steroids such as cortisol. Cortisol, a stress hormone, abnormal cortisol levels in the blood can dysregulating stress reactions. This can explain why many viral infections are currently being followed by chronic fatigue after clinical recovery. A further theory is that MNPs help transport infectious means in cells and tissues.
Currently, exposure to MNP is inevitable, so that researchers investigate whether it can be effectively removed from the body.
The authors of the current study investigated the use of therapeutic Aeresis to possibly remove MNPs from the body. This technique is currently being used to remove certain blood components, such as cells or plasma proteins.
About the study
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) has occurred dramatically more often in recent years. This is associated with increasing air pollution due to particles 10μm or less.
In an earlier study by the same authors, ME/CFS patients reported an improvement in symptoms by 70% after they received this therapy. It is important to note that this earlier observation with regard to symptom improvement and MNP removal has not specifically investigated. The current study took this further by looking for the presence of MNP-like particles in the elected liquid.
About Therapeutic Aferesis
Therapeutic Aferesis is actually a filtration process. Blood from the patient passes from a vein through an circuit with an afterer machine that contains a series of filters that are designed to remove different blood components. For example, one set of filters can remove auto antibodies, while another can focus on blood lipids.
The filtered blood is now returned to the patient with the help of a second vein. The eluate will be enriched in the components that are removed from the blood.
Study findings
In the current study, 21 patients who had treated post-infectious ME/CFs were used with the help of two cycles of therapeutic Aferesis, or more, with the help of double filtration. The concentrated eluate was measured with an advanced analytical method called weakened total reflection Fourier transformation infrared (ATR-FT-IR) spectroscopy. It is important to note that this analysis does not measure MNPs quantitatively; It only determines whether MNP-like particles are present or not.
This revealed 14 types of substances or mixtures that looked like MNP-like particles in the eluates of these patients, but not the pre-fluid. The IR spectrum showed a match of 67.5% for polyamide 6 (nylon 6) and 35.3% match for polyurethane (PUR-WS). Some of these particles were 200 Nm in size or smaller.
This may be due to the presence of polyamide 6, a synthetic polymer that is mainly produced as a fiber instead of a particle, which is manufactured as an electrospun fiber <100 nm for some specialized applications.
This spectroscopic method identifies the presence of polyamide bindings, although this can also indicate the presence of proteins. This limits the definitivity of this observation with regard to the precise composition of the detected particles.
Conclusions
This study reports a method for the first time that may be used to remove MNP-like particles from the human body. Larger studies are required to validate this application.
In addition, the Plasma MNP levels must be measured pre- and post-atheren quantitatively, together with Eluate MNPs, in more than one af rehearsal cycle. This will show how well these particles are removed from blood and then from tissues. The clinical effects of MNP removal from the body also need a confirmation, and it must be emphasized that such effects are not yet determined by this provisional examination.