Microplastics Everywhere
There is a growing awareness among both the public and the scientific community that microplastics are a serious issue.
For example, microplastics are now found in the carotid artery of half of the patients tested in a dedicated study. They are also finding their way into endangered species’ food as far as the Galapagos Islands. Recycling plastics is often less efficient or well done than imagined, leading to companies like ExxonMobil being sued for their plastic production.
And it appears that the problem might be even bigger than we realized. Not only do plastics find their way into human and animal bodies, but they also could reduce the efficiency of antibiotics.
This was discovered by researchers at the University of Bonn (Germany), University of Vienna, University of Bath (UK), Umeå University (Sweden), and University of Debrecen (Hungary). They published their finding in Scientific Reports, under the title “The adsorption of drugs on nanoplastics has severe biological impact”.
Micro & Nanoplastic Chemical Interactions
The researchers investigated the interactions of common antibiotics with a selection of the most used plastics: polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), and nylon 6,6 (N66).
To do so, they used chemical computation, a method calculating the interaction between chemical compounds “in-silico” (in a computer program).
They focused mostly on nanoplastics, or plastic particles smaller than 0.001 millimeters, which are considered particularly harmful to humans and the environment due to their small size.
These particles are emitted in large amounts by the plastic in our environment, home, and clothing, especially clothing, with both high emissions in indoor air and in water by washing machines. The same can be expected to be high in medically controlled environments like hospital.
The antibiotic studied was tetracycline, a broad-spectrum antibiotic used to fight infections already resistant to other simpler antibiotics.
Source: Nature
Nylon: The Worst Offender
The researchers found that nylon forms by far the worst microplastic particles when it comes to binding to tetracycline.
“The binding was particularly strong with nylon, pointing out a largely underestimated danger indoors.
The micro- and nanoplastic load is around five times higher there than outdoors. Nylon is one of the reasons for this: it is released from textiles and enters the body via respiration, for example.”
Lukas Kenner – Vienna lead researcher on the project
So, not only could microplastics be toxic on their own, but they could also affect how antibiotics function, which is very important to consider as the load of microplastics in the body is rising.
Testing On Water And Living Cells
They then checked how the antibiotic-microplastic aggregate reacted to water and temperature. In all the tested conditions, the aggregate persisted in water, indicating that it is likely to do so in real-life environments.
Source: Nature
Computer simulations were a good way to understand how the antibiotics react to the plastic particles at the atomic level, but this did not fully prove that the same thing would happen in real life. So the researchers also performed tests on living cells in-vitro.
It demonstrated that the biological activity of tetracycline drops significantly in the presence of nanoplastic particles. So not only are the antibiotic molecules bound by the plastics, but it clearly seems to decrease the drug’s effectiveness.
Source: Nature
The micro- and nanoplastics are also known to sometimes accumulate in specific cells or tissues. As they are now known to carry antibiotics with them, it could lead to locally high concentrations of antibiotics, leading to additional unwanted side effects.
Are Microplastics Causing Antibiotic Resistance?
The presence of intact but ineffective antibiotics is a serious concern. The more deadly bacteria are exposed to antibiotics, the more likely they are to evolve resistance against the drug.
It even gets worse, as the nanoplastic particles have been shown to concentrate the antibiotics, while still neutralizing its effects to some extent.
“Our finding that the local concentration of antibiotics on the surface of the nanoplastic particles can increase is particularly worrying.
This increase in concentration could lead to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Plastics such as nylon 6,6, but also polystyrene, which binds more strongly to tetracycline, could therefore increase the risk of resistance.”
Lukas Kenner – Vienna lead researcher on the project
This likely illustrates the need for new antibacterial treatments that do not rely on antibiotics, with luckily quite a few new technologies emerging at once, from leveraging viruses called bacteriophages, to mRNA vaccines or ironically enough, synthetic polymers not completely dissimilar from plastics from a chemical point of view.
Microplastics Mitigation Companies
Veralto Corporation (VLTO +1.85%)
Veralto Corporation (VLTO +1.85%)
Veralto is the result of the spin-off of water-related activities from the measurement and environmental conglomerate Danaher (DHR +0.12%).
As such, it is the heir of the Pall Corporation acquired by Danaher in 2015, a global leader in water purification products.
Veralto is a group made of many companies, which can be divided into 2 segments: water quality & product quality/manufacturing.
Source: Veralto
Overall, Veralto is making half of its income from North America, and a quarter each from Europe and high-growth markets (rest of the world).
The company is focused on creating a steady income stream, with 57% of sales recurring, as its machinery are integral to customers’ daily operations and needs regular purchase of consumables for the installed equipment.
Source: Veralto
The company is responsible for at least part of the water purification process for more than 3.4 billion people worldwide.
Its filters, sensors, and water cleaning system will be increasingly important in dealing with the problem of generalized contamination by microplastics in our fresh water and wastewater.
Following the company DNA of serial acquisition inherited from Danaher, it is expanding through acquisition, with most recently the acquisition of TraceGains, a cloud-based software provider for sourcing ingredients, used by the food and beverage industry. This should reinforce the position of Veralto at every step of the value chain in providing service to the food production sector (product quality segment).
Source: Veralto
Veralto is a leading company in the water segment, as well as food safety. With increasing pollution, including microplastics, it is likely that it will keep growing by providing extra monitoring and pollution remediation solutions.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO +0.53%)
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO +0.53%)
ThermoFisher is a leader in lab instruments and analytical tools for the chemical and biotech industry, with 125,000 employees.
It provides innovative and advanced solutions for a range of applications, including:
- life sciences
- pharmaceuticals
- biotechnology
- medical diagnostics
This covers a very large market, at $235B in size. Its ability to serve such a broad range of sectors is partially due to its position at the forefront of nanotechnology development, which aids in the advancement of solutions that drive scientific discovery and improve healthcare outcomes.
This makes it an important partner for production at the scale of advanced medical treatment and other biotechnology products.
Source: ThermoFisher
Thermo Fisher’s instruments help monitor nanoplastic pollution, supporting environmental studies and pollution management. Their technologies are instrumental in developing methods to reduce the impact of nanoplastics across various ecosystems and industries.
Its broad applications in biosciences, medical diagnostics, and environmental monitoring create multiple growth opportunities.
Additionally, strategic acquisitions and partnerships enhance its nanotechnology capabilities and market reach, further driving growth potential and continuing the trend of serial acquisitions in the past years.
Source: ThermoFisher
So overall, as the biotech industry grows, as well as the need to monitor pollution like microplastics, it is likely that ThermoFisher will keep growing its sales, while also being instrumental in creating new markets through new analytical capacities in precision medicine, proteomics, electron microscopy, etc.