Biological effects and bioaccumulation of pharmaceutically active compounds in crucian carp caged near the outfall of a sewage treatment plant

Abstract

Pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) have been universally detected in rivers, lakes and coastal waters that are affected by effluents from sewage treatment plants (STPs). In this study, the biological effects and bioaccumulation of PhACs were assessed in crucian carp (Carassius auratus) caged in an effluent-receiving river for 21 days. Compared with control fish in the laboratory and at a reference site, a significant reduction in hepatosomatic index (HSI) and increase in the biotransformation enzymes ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (EROD) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities were observed in the fish that was caged downstream from the STP outfall. In general, the total concentrations of PhACs detected in fish tissues were in the order as follows: liver > brain > gill > muscle > bile. The bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) for PhACs were between 195 and 2782 in the major storage tissue liver. The corresponding results for both risk quotient (RQ) and enhanced integrated biomarker response (EIBR) based on laboratory and field studies, respectively, indicated that environmental risk for adverse effects to aquatic organisms were clearly higher at the downstream of the STP outfall than at the upstream.

A multibiomarker approach highlights effects induced by the human pharmaceutical gemfibrozil to gilthead seabream Sparus aurata

“…Representative results are shown as star plot charts indicating the deviation of all biomarkers in relation to the control (0) (Sanchez et al, 2013). In addition, data were analyzed using a weighing procedure for endpoints as previously described (Liu et al, 2013(Liu et al, , 2015, assuming that a biochemical alteration has lower impact on the organism health than changes at an individual level. Behavior is considered as the outcome of many biological processes resultant from interactions between the organisms and the surrounding environment (Oliveira et al, 2015).…”

“…6B1-B5), it seems clear that GEM had more effects in terms of capability to swim against a flow of S. aurata, CAT and GR activities in gills and GPx and GR activities in liver. If the data analyses takes into account a weighing factor attributed to different biological levels of organization as suggested by Liu et al (2013Liu et al ( , 2015, the effects of the different concentrations of GEM would be ordered as follows: 150 μgL −1 ≈ 15,000 μg.L −1 ≈ 1500 μgL −1 > 1.5 μgL −1 ≈ 15 μgL −1 (Table S2). This data analysis, attributing a higher weighing factor to behavior, did, however, not alter the ranking of GEM impact.…”

Biological fate and effects of propranolol in an experimental aquatic food chain

“…Therefore, a growing interest has been given to the risk of pharmaceuticals posing for the aquatic trophic chains (Brodin et al, 2014;Chèvre, 2014;Zenker et al, 2014). In a field study investigating the bioaccumulation of various pharmaceuticals in the liver of crucian carp (Carassius auratus) caged in an effluent-receiving river, PRP has showed a higher bioaccumulation factor (BAF) (2782) than the other pharmaceutical substances such as roxithromycin (440), carbamazepine (917) and erythromycin (1482) (Liu et al, 2015a). Moreover, PRP is considered lipophilic (logK ow = 2.43-3.65), highly resistant to hydrolysis (half-life of N 1 year), bioavailable and mobile in the environment, suggesting its bioaccumulation potential in the water ecosystems (Bendz et al, 2005;Massarsky et al, 2011;Maszkowska et al, 2014a).…”

Surface-Bound Humic Acid Increased Propranolol Sorption on Fe3O4/Attapulgite Magnetic Nanoparticles

“…Although designed for human use, more and more evidence has indicated that propranolol may pose harm to aquatic organisms [10][11][12][13][14][15], it must be pointed out that propranolol has shown high hydrolytic stability [16]. Meanwhile, propranolol may bioaccumulate in water ecosystems due to its lipophilicity [2,3,17]. Therefore, it is urgent that various efficient methods are developed to remove propranolol from water.…”