Ion channels on cytoplasmic membrane function to sense various environmental stimuli. We here determined the changes of genes encoding ion channels in Caenorhabditis elegans after exposure to polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs). Exposure to 1–1000 μg/L PS-NPs could increase expressions of egl-19, mec-10, trp-4, trp-2, tax-4, cca-1, unc-2, and unc-93, and decrease the expressions of cng-3, mec-6, ocr-2, deg-1, exc-4, kvs-1, and eat-2. Among these 15 ion channel genes, RNAi knockdown of cng-3 or eat-2 caused resistance to PS-NPs toxicity and RNAi knockdown of egl-19, cca-1, tax-4, or unc-93 induced susceptibility to PS-NPs toxicity, suggesting that cng-3, eat-2, egl-19, cca-1, tax-4, and unc-93 were involved in the control of PS-NPs toxicity. EGL-19 and CCA-1 functioned in intestinal cells to control PS-NPs toxicity, and CNG-3, EAT-2, EGL-19, TAX-4, and UNC-93 functioned in neuronal cells to control PS-NPs. Moreover, in intestinal cells of PS-NPs exposed worms, cca-1 RNAi knockdown decreased elt-2 expression, and egl-19 RNAi knockdown decreased daf-16 and elt-2 expressions. In neuronal cells of PS-NPs exposed worms, eat-2 RNAi knockdown increased jnk-1, mpk-1, and dbl-1 expressions, unc-93 RNAi knockdown decreased mpk-1 and daf-7 expressions, and tax-4 RNAi knockdown decreased jnk-1 and daf-7 expressions. Therefore, two molecular networks mediated by ion channels in intestinal cells and neuronal cells were dysregulated by PS-NPs exposure in C. elegans. Our data suggested that the dysregulation in expressions of these ion channels mediated a protective response to PS-NPs in the range of μg/L in worms.

细胞质膜上的离子通道具有感知各种环境刺激的功能。在这里，我们确定了暴露于聚苯乙烯纳米颗粒（PS-NP）后秀丽隐杆线虫中编码离子通道的基因的变化。暴露于1–1000μg/ L PS-NPs可能会增加egl-19，mec-10，trp-4，trp-2，tax-4，cca-1，unc-2和unc-93的表达，并降低的表达CNG-3，MEC-6，OCR-2，DEG-1，EXC-4，KVS-1，和吃-2。在这15个离子通道基因中，cng-3或eat-2的RNAi敲除引起对PS-NPs毒性的抵抗，egl-19，cca-1，tax-4或unc-93的RNAi敲除引起对PS-NP的敏感性毒性，表明cng-3，eat-2，egl-19，cca-1，tax-4和unc-93参与了PS-NPs毒性的控制。EGL-19和CCA-1在肠道细胞中起控制PS-NPs毒性的作用，而CNG-3，EAT-2，EGL-19，TAX-4和UNC-93在神经元细胞中起控制PS-NPs的作用。此外，在暴露于PS-NPs的蠕虫的肠道细胞中，cca-1 RNAi敲低可降低elt-2表达，egl-19 RNAi敲低可降低daf-16和elt-2表达。在暴露于PS-NPs的蠕虫的神经元细胞中，eat-2 RNAi敲低增加了jnk-1，mpk-1和dbl-1的表达，unc-93 RNAi敲低减少了mpk-1和daf-7的表达表达，和tax-4 RNAi敲低降低jnk-1和daf-7表达。因此，秀丽隐杆线虫暴露于肠细胞和神经元细胞中的离子通道介导的两个分子网络因PS-NPs暴露而失调。我们的数据表明，这些离子通道表达的失调介导了蠕虫中微克/升范围内对PS-NP的保护性反应。