You Don't Want to Know Where Scientists Just Found 27 Million Tons of Plastic
Researchers from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and Utrecht University claim to be the first to provide a real estimate of ocean-polluting nanoplastics. Their research indicates that the North Atlantic Ocean alone hosts 27 million tons of floating plastic particles less than 1 micrometer (μm) in size.
'Plastic pollution of the marine realm is widespread, with most scientific attention given to macroplastics and microplastics. By contrast, ocean nanoplastics (<1 μm) remain largely unquantified, leaving gaps in our understanding of the mass budget of this plastic size class,' they explained in a study published earlier this month in the journal Nature. 'Our findings suggest that nanoplastics comprise the dominant fraction of marine plastic pollution.'
To reach these conclusions, Utrecht graduate student and study co-author Sophie ten Hietbrink collected water samples from 12 locations while working aboard a research vessel traveling from the Azores to the continental shelf of Europe. She filtered the samples of anything larger than one micrometer and conducted a molecular analysis on what was left behind. The team then extrapolated its results to the entire North Atlantic Ocean.
27 million tons is 'a shocking amount,' Ten Hietbrink said in a NIOZ statement. 'But with this we do have an important answer to the paradox of the missing plastic.' Namely, that a large part of it is floating in our oceans, invisible to the naked eye.
Unfortunately, there are a number of ways nanoparticles can end up in the oceans. While some likely arrive via rivers, others fall out of the sky with rain or on their own as 'dry deposition.' (Yes, we've even found plastic pollution in the sky). Nanoparticles can also form when large pieces of plastic already in the ocean are broken down by waves and/or sunlight, according to the researchers. The question now is how this pollution is impacting the world and its creatures—including us.
'It is already known that nanoplastics can penetrate deep into our bodies. They are even found in brain tissue. Now that we know they are so ubiquitous in the oceans, it's also obvious that they penetrate the entire ecosystem; from bacteria and other microorganisms to fish and top predators like humans,' said Helge Niemann, a geochemist at NIOZ and another co-author of the study. 'How that pollution affects the ecosystem needs further investigation.'
The missing plastic paradox, however, is not completely solved, because not all plastics were represented in the samples. The team didn't find polyethylene or polypropylene, for example.
'It may well be that those were masked by other molecules in the study. We also want to know if nanoplastics are as abundant in the other oceans. It is to be feared that they do, but that remains to be proven,' Niemann added. 'The nanoplastics that are there, can never be cleaned up. So an important message from this research is that we should at least prevent the further pollution of our environment with plastics.'
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
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New Scientific Data with TrkA-NAM ACD137 Against Knee Osteoarthritis to be Presented at Pain Conference
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Furthermore, this small molecule TrkA-NAM has the potential to avoid some of the side effects observed with anti-NGF antibodies due to a more selective mechanism of action, while maintaining analgesic efficacy," said Pontus Forsell, project leader and Head of Discovery and Research at AlzeCure Pharma. "The project is based on a mechanism with strong validation, both preclinically and clinically. The results we have for TrkA-NAM in pain are promising, and the fact that we also have anti-inflammatory effects with our substance opens up for broader application. The fact that this is also a mechanism that is not linked to the side effects and addiction problems observed with opioids and antibodies is of course also important for a potential future approval," said Martin Jönsson, CEO of AlzeCure Pharma AB. The abstract and the poster will be available on AlzeCure's website after the presentation ( For more information, please contact Martin Jönsson, CEOTel: +46 707 86 94 About AlzeCure Pharma AB (publ) AlzeCure ® is a Swedish pharmaceutical company that develops new innovative drug therapies for the treatment of severe diseases and conditions that affect the central nervous system, such as Alzheimer's disease and pain - indications for which currently available treatment is very limited. The company is listed on Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market and is developing several parallel drug candidates based on three research platforms: NeuroRestore ® , Alzstatin ® and Painless. NeuroRestore consists of two symptomatic drug candidates where the unique mechanism of action allows for multiple indications, including Alzheimer's disease, as well as cognitive disorders associated with traumatic brain injury, sleep apnea and Parkinson's disease and is being prepared for phase 2. The Alzstatin platform focuses on developing disease-modifying and preventive drug candidates for early treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Painless is the company's research platform in the field of pain and contains two projects: ACD440, which is a drug candidate in the clinical development phase for the treatment of neuropathic pain with positive phase 2 results, and TrkA-NAM, which targets severe pain in conditions such as osteoarthritis. AlzeCure aims to pursue its own projects through preclinical research and development through an early clinical phase, and is continually working on business development to find suitable outlicensing solutions with other pharmaceutical companies. FNCA Sweden AB is the company's Certified Adviser. For more information, please visit About TrkA-NAMThe TrkA-NAM project, which is in research phase, is focused on the treatment of pain. The target mechanism, NGF / TrkA signaling, is well-validated both preclinically and clinically and provides a promising alternative to new analgesics without the side effects and addiction problems observed with opioids. Substances developed in the project have recently been shown to also have anti-inflammatory properties. For the TrkA-NAM drug project, we have leveraged our knowledge concerning the underlying biology for the NeuroRestore platform in order to develop new compounds that focus on providing pain relief in conditions associated with severe pain. The goal of the project is to develop a small-molecule TrkA-negative allosteric modulator for the treatment of osteoarthritis pain and other severe pain disorders. The global osteoarthritis market is expected to reach USD 11.0 billion by 2025, from USD 7.3 billion in 2020. Growth in this market is driven by factors such as the increasing occurrence of osteoarthritis, the growing aging population, and an increase in the number of sports injuries. Over 400 million people worldwide suffer from painful and activity-limiting osteoarthritis of the hip or knee. Many patients experience insufficient pain relief or side effects with current treatment, which today usually consist of NSAIDs or opiates and there is a great need for more effective and better tolerated drugs in this field. Read more about TrkA-NAM on our homepage. Image Attachments Martin Jönsson CEO And Pontus Forsell Head Of D&R AlzeCure Pharma Attachments New scientific data with TrkA-NAM ACD137 against knee osteoarthritis to be presented at pain conference SOURCE: AlzeCure Pharma View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
