ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016
Magnetite pollution nanoparticles in the human brain.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 280 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
280 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 1,014 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Relationship between Air Pollution and Brain Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Annals of global health · 2023Pooled it
- Ambient air pollution and cardiovascular diseases: An umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Journal of internal medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Adverse Effects of fine particulate matter on human kidney functioning: a systematic review.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2022Pooled it
- Aerosol Deposition in the Human Respiratory System from Distinct Urban Sources Using Multiple Exposure Metrics.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Toxicity, Cellular Uptake, and Intracellular Fate of Particulate and Dissolved Uranium in Murine Lung-Relevant Cell Models.ACS omega · 2026Article
- Multimodal microscopic and spectroscopic characterisation of heterogeneous iron oxyhydroxides in the human globus pallidus.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2026Article
- Engineered Protein Coronas Reveal That Apolipoprotein E Enhances Transport of Particulate Pollutants across the Blood-Brain Barrier.Environment & health (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Effects of gramicidin A on the deformation, membrane permeation and membrane stability of lipid vesicles by FeEuropean biophysics journal : EBJ · 2026Article
- Assessing Black Carbon and Iron Oxide Aerosols: A Comparative Study between Urban and Rural Environments in the Southeastern U.S.ACS ES&T air · 2026Article
- Multi-elemental fingerprinting of the human brain: distribution of toxic, essential, and rare earth elements across neocortical, limbic, and subcortical regions.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Stagnant oxidative potential in declining agricultural fleets: Evidence from key particulate matter composition despite fleet renewal.Eco-Environment & Health · 2026Article
- Macrophage-MediatedACS applied materials & interfaces · 2026Article
- Cognitive benefits of air purification among schoolchildren: A randomized, double-blind, crossover trial.Innovation (Cambridge (Mass.)) · 2026Article
- Prenatal exposure to particulate matter impairs offspring behavior via hippocampal NMDA receptor reduction: an in vivo and ex vivo study.Environment international · 2026Article
- Endogenous iron biomineralization in the mouse spleen of metabolic diseases.Fundamental research · 2026Article
- Inhibition of EPAC1 Prevents Neuronal Death Mediated by Diesel Exhaust Particles in Ferroptotic Cell Death Conditions.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Neural impairments caused by energy storage material NCM811 via aberrated synaptic pruning: role of Th17 cells in microglia polarization.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Article
- Associations of prenatal fine particulate matter mixtures with neurodevelopmental outcomes in early childhood: component- and source-specific insights.Particle and fibre toxicology · 2026Article
- Adherence of traffic-related particles to human red blood cellsERJ open research · 2026Article
- Digging Deep into Alzheimer Disease: How Electron Microscopy Helps Elucidating Its Pathogenesis.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
220 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Biologically formed nanoparticles of the strongly magnetic mineral, magnetite, were first detected in the human brain over 20 y ago [Kirschvink JL, Kobayashi-Kirschvink A, Woodford BJ (1992) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 89(16):7683-7687]. Magnetite can have potentially large impacts on the brain due to its unique combination of redox activity, surface charge, and strongly magnetic behavior. We used magnetic analyses and electron microscopy to identify the abundant presence in the brain of magnetite nanoparticles that are consistent with high-temperature formation, suggesting, therefore, an external, not internal, source. Comprising a separate nanoparticle population from the euhedral particles ascribed to endogenous sources, these brain magnetites are often found with other transition metal nanoparticles, and they display rounded crystal morphologies and fused surface textures, reflecting crystallization upon cooling from an initially heated, iron-bearing source material. Such high-temperature magnetite nanospheres are ubiquitous and abundant in airborne particulate matter pollution. They arise as combustion-derived, iron-rich particles, often associated with other transition metal particles, which condense and/or oxidize upon airborne release. Those magnetite pollutant particles which are <∼200 nm in diameter can enter the brain directly via the olfactory bulb. Their presence proves that externally sourced iron-bearing nanoparticles, rather than their soluble compounds, can be transported directly into the brain, where they may pose hazard to human health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.