Enantioselectivity in the Ecotoxicity of Amphetamine Using Daphnia magna as the Aquatic Model Organism: Morphophysiological, Behavioral, Reproductive and Biochemical Parameters

Abstract

Amphetamine (AMP) is a chiral psychoactive substance that exhibits enantioselectivity in its pharmacological properties. It has been detected in wastewaters and surface waters and can occur as enantiomeric mixtures, but little is known about its environmental risk and potential enantioselective toxicity to aquatic organisms. Our study aimed to target enantioselectivity in AMP toxicity to the freshwater invertebrate Daphnia magna. Daphnids were subchronically exposed to the racemate (rac‐AMP: 0.1, 1.0, and 10 µg/L) and pure enantiomers, (R)‐AMP and (S)‐AMP (0.1, and 1.0 µg/L, respectively), for 8 days. Morphophysiological, swimming behavior, reproductive and biochemical variables were evaluated during critical life stages (juveniles vs. adults). Some responses were context‐dependent and often enantioselective, varying between racemate and enantiomers and across the life stage of the organisms. Overall, rac‐AMP stimulated D. magna growth, decreased heart rate and area, affected behavior, and stimulated reproduction. The effect of enantiomers was totally or partially concordant with rac‐AMP, except for swimming behavior and reproduction. Enantioselectivity was observed for body size, number of eggs/daphnia, and heart rate (steeper decrease caused by (R)‐AMP on day 3). Changes in biochemical parameters were also observed: AMP caused a significant decrease in catalase activity as racemate or pure enantiomers, whereas a decrease in acetylcholinesterase activity was found only for rac‐AMP. Evidence for oxidative stress was contradictory, although both enantiomers caused a significant decrease in reactive oxygen species (unlike rac‐AMP). Overall, these results show that AMP can interfere in an enantioselective way with aquatic organisms at low concentrations (e.g., 0.1 µg/L), demonstrating the relevance of this kind of study to an accurate environmental risk assessment regarding medium‐ to long‐term exposure to this psychoactive drug. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;42:1743–1754. © 2023 SETAC.