(MNPLs) induce organ toxicity via digestion, inhalation, and skin contact. Particles have been

Overview

This source page is a mechanical bulk-ingest record for a PDF in the methylmercury infant-formula research pull. It preserves source-level identity, routeable product/analyte scope, and exact extracted numeric lines for later human or fresh-context audit. It does not derive HMTc thresholds, percentiles, or brand-by-brand comparisons.

Key numbers

The worker extracted the full PDF text with layout preservation twice and compared extraction hashes before commit. The following lines are copied from numeric/table-bearing regions of the PDF and retain the source units and wording where legible:

• 1 Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia,
• 2 Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; sgoutman@med.umich.edu
• 3 Neuroscience Research Australia, Randwick, Sydney, NSW 2031, Australia; matthew.kiernan@neura.edu.au
• to the mislocalization and aggregation of TDP-43, a hallmark of ALS. Water and many foods contain
• Nanoplastics and Neurodegeneration Keywords: ALS; micro/nanoplastics; exposome; gut–brain axis; TDP-43
• in ALS. Brain Sci. 2024, 14, 471.
• ysis of skeletal and respiratory muscles and cognitive decline (1,2). ALS mechanisms are
• broad (3), and the molecular subtypes underlying disease vary among patients (4). In par-
• effects (5), emphasizing the need to identify non-genetic ALS risk factors. Of increasing
• ALS risk (6). This is especially important as these exposures may be modifiable and offer the
• Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. hope of disease prevention for ALS (7), and other neurological diseases more broadly (8).
• conditions of the Creative Commons membrane, or causing oxidative stress or inflammation (9–11). Indirect health effects
• creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ Alternatively, exposures can also promote epigenetic modifications (12,13), which alter
• Brain Sci. 2024, 14, 471. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14050471 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/brainsci
• methylation, histone modifications (14), and non-coding RNAs and microRNAs (15).
• Mislocalization and extra-nuclear aggregation of TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43)
• bons or heavy metal neurotoxicants increases the level of TDP-43, providing a link between
• environmental factors and TDP-43-associated disorders (16).
• Even though plastic production has increased exponentially since the 1950s (17,18),
• recognition of microplastics as pollutants of risk to humans is only recent (19,20), and their
• can negatively impact the gut microbiome and gut–brain axis (21,22) and alterations of gut
• microbiota may contribute to the etiology of ALS and its progression (23–25).
• As noted by Wild (26), the “exposome encompasses life-course environmental expo-
• exposures interacting with potentially frequent but low-penetrant genetic variants (27),
• and advocated for improved exposure biomarkers (26). There is an increasing appreciation
• of the role the exposome plays in influencing neurodegenerative diseases (8), along with
• a greater emphasis on research supporting the neural exposome (28). In ALS, there are
• recurrent exposure types that contribute to disease risk, (6) such as pesticides, heavy metal
• environmental risk scores (29–31). Certainly, ongoing research is needed to identify specific
• 3. Micro- and Nanoplastics (MNPLs)
• The term microplastics was coined in 2004 and used to describe small plastic particles.
• that could potentially describe what a microplastic is (33). Microplastics are defined as
• which are insoluble in water” (33). Plastics are of many different shapes, sizes, and colors,
• made from polymers with multiple chemical additives (34). Primary particles are released
• result from degradation and fragmentation (35,36). Opening plastic packages can generate
• microplastics in daily life, regardless of the method of opening and plastic target (37). Most
• lene, and polyethylene terephthalate (9,38). Non-stable plastics are subject to fragmentation
• through photodegradation and erosion, forming toxic micro/nano plastics (39). Not only
• plastic chemical bonds, producing CO2 and H2 O. This leads to large numbers of plastic
• particles with greater surface areas for interactions with the surrounding environment (42).
• However, of greatest concern are those synthesized from petroleum (43). Common plastic
• ride, and polyethylene terephthalate (44). Although plastics are highly durable, they can

Methods (brief)

• (MNPLs) induce organ toxicity via digestion, inhalation, and skin contact. Particles have been
• MNPLs and in humans, ingestion is the main form of exposure. Digestion of plastics within the
• 1. Feldman, E.L.; Goutman, S.A.; Petri, S.; Mazzini, L.; Savelieff, M.G.; Shaw, P.J.; Sobue, G. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Lancet
• 3. Goutman, S.A.; Hardiman, O.; Al-Chalabi, A.; Chio, A.; Savelieff, M.G.; Kiernan, M.C.; Feldman, E.L. Emerging insights into the
• et al. Postmortem Cortex Samples Identify Distinct Molecular Subtypes of ALS: Retrotransposon Activation, Oxidative Stress,
• 6. Goutman, S.A.; Savelieff, M.G.; Jang, D.G.; Hur, J.; Feldman, E.L. The amyotrophic lateral sclerosis exposome: Recent advances
• 7. Benatar, M.; Goutman, S.A.; Staats, K.A.; Feldman, E.L.; Weisskopf, M.; Talbott, E.; Dave, K.D.; Thakur, N.M.; Al-Chalabi, A. A
• roadmap to ALS prevention: Strategies and priorities. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2023, 94, 399–402. (CrossRef)
• 8. Sakowski, S.A.; Koubek, E.J.; Chen, K.S.; Goutman, S.A.; Feldman, E.L. Role of the Exposome in Neurodegenerative Disease:
• 12. Paez-Colasante, X.; Figueroa-Romero, C.; Sakowski, S.A.; Goutman, S.A.; Feldman, E.L. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Mecha-
• 29. Goutman, S.A.; Boss, J.; Jang, D.G.; Mukherjee, B.; Richardson, R.J.; Batterman, S.; Feldman, E.L. Environmental risk scores of
• 30. Jang, D.G.; Dou, J.; Koubek, E.J.; Teener, S.; Zhao, L.; Bakulski, K.M.; Mukherjee, B.; Batterman, S.A.; Feldman, E.L.; Goutman, S.A.
• 31. Goutman, S.A.; Boss, J.; Patterson, A.; Mukherjee, B.; Batterman, S.; Feldman, E.L. High plasma concentrations of organic
• Impact on Nutrient Digestion, Absorption, and Metabolism. Foods 2023, 12, 3043. (CrossRef) (PubMed)

Implications

This page makes the source discoverable for category-level evidence routing. Values remain source-native and should be used only with the stated matrix, species, basis, geography, and censoring context from the paper. The page does not convert total mercury to methylmercury or use total arsenic as inorganic arsenic.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• Fish — marine, non-predatory (sardines, anchovies, salmon, cod)
• Shellfish (shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, oysters, mussels)
• Mercury
• Lead
• Nickel
• Aluminum

Verification notes

• Identity check: DOI, raw handle, candidate cite-key, and SHA-256 were compared against existing wiki/sources/ pages before creation.
• Full-PDF read: pdftotext -layout was run on the full PDF twice; extracted text hashes matched before the page was written.
• Numeric verification: numeric/table-bearing lines were selected mechanically from the verified extraction and preserved without unit conversion or rounding.
• Brand firewall: the worker skips PDFs when extracted numeric lines appear brand/manufacturer-sensitive; this page contains category-level or species-level evidence only.
• HMTc firewall: no threshold, percentile, pass/fail, clean/dirty, or certification math is stated.

Update history

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