What are microplastics doing in our brains?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-04-20 19:00

International

Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash

An international study looking at brain samples has detected microplastics and nanoplastics in almost all of them, but the researchers say there is still plenty of work to do to properly understand how they're getting in, and what impact they're having. The researchers collected brain samples from 113 brain tumour patients alongside 35 post-mortem samples from donors without brain tumours. Analysing the samples, they say they detected microplastics or nanoplastics in 99.4% of the diseased samples and 100% of the healthy samples. Higher concentrations of nanoplastics were found around tumours, the researchers say, which could suggest that cancer compromises the blood-brain barrier, making it easier for microplastics to get through. The researchers say current methods for detecting microplastics in the brain are showing inconsistent results, and there is a need for improved technology to better track microplastics in the body, with evidence still unclear on how they might impact human health.

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research Springer Nature, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Nature Health

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Capital Medical University, China, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, China. Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, China

Funder: This research was supported by grants from the Noncommunicable Chronic Diseases—National Science and Technology Major Project (2024ZD0539700) to R.L., the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (42525701) to X.Z., the Noncommunicable Chronic Diseases—National Science and Technology Major Project (2023ZD0505106) to X.C., the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFB4702801) and the National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding (2025-PUMCH-D-004) to Y.Z., the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (L246018) to D.Z., the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41925031) to X.Z. and (T2488101) to J.Z. and the STI2030-Major Project 2021ZD0201100 Task 1 2021ZD0201101 to C.M.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.