Multispectroscopic investigations of the binding interaction between microplastics and actin protein

Microplastics (MPs) have become prevalent environmental pollutants that can build up within cells and might eventually disrupt the structure and function of cytoskeletal proteins such as F-actin that are important for cell morphology, motility, and intracellular transport. Still, the molecular principles of MP-F-actin interactions are insufficiently understood. The interaction between MPs and F-Actin, was assessed in this work using multispectroscopic examinations, viz. fluorescence, UV, CD, FTIR spectroscopy to understand the binding behaviour and structural effects. Actin adsorbed onto MPs in the following sequence: PS > PVC > PE and the binding constants are 6.94, 2.67, 1.33 _˟ 10⁶ M^-1 respectively. These findings showed that MPs significantly altered Actin's secondary structure and microenvironment and the interaction is static, exothermic, and spontaneous in nature.