Nanoplastics impair antitumor NK and CD8⁺ T cell cytotoxicity and antiviral B cell antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2
Stefano Maria Santini, Francesca Spadaro, Agostina Pietrantoni, Irene Canini, Simona Donati, Barbara De Berardis, Caterina Lapenta, Alessandra Fragale, Laura Lattanzi, Giulia Romagnoli, Stefania Rossi, Sara Gualdi, Maria Carollo, Federica Frasca, Carolina Scagnolari, Lucia Gabriele · 2026
Read Nanoplastics impair antitumor NK and CD8⁺ T cell cytotoxicity and antiviral B cell antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 by Stefano Maria Santini, Francesca Spadaro, Agostina Pietrantoni, Irene Canini, Simona Donati, Barbara De Berardis, Caterina Lapenta, Alessandra Fragale, Laura Lattanzi, Giulia Romagnoli, Stefania Rossi, Sara Gualdi, Maria Carollo, Federica Frasca, Carolina Scagnolari, Lucia Gabriele (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13376373.txt.
Description
Stefano Maria Santini and co-authors present a 2026 study on how nanoplastics affect the human immune system. These tiny plastic particles are everywhere in the environment and build up in body organs, yet their effect on immune defense was unclear. The team exposed immune cells from healthy donors to treated plastic particles that had picked up a protein coating.
Exposure weakened several defender cell types over time. Killer T cells responded less well to tumor targets, natural killer cells killed fewer tumor cells, and B cells took in particles and then made fewer antibodies against the COVID-19 virus. The findings raise concern that plastic particles could blunt defense against infection and cancer and reduce the benefit of immune-based treatments.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Stefano Maria Santini, Francesca Spadaro, Agostina Pietrantoni, Irene Canini, Simona Donati, Barbara De Berardis, Caterina Lapenta, Alessandra Fragale, Laura Lattanzi, Giulia Romagnoli, Stefania Rossi, Sara Gualdi, Maria Carollo, Federica Frasca, Carolina Scagnolari, Lucia Gabriele |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 47 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |