Study on the acute toxicity of trichlorfon and its breakdown product dichlorvos to goldfish (Carassius auratus) based on 1H NMR metabonomics

Abstract

Trichlorfon, one of the most widely used organophosphate insecticide, is used in aquaculture and agriculture against parasitic infestations, but it is extremely unstable and easily decomposed into dichlorvos (DDVP), increasing its toxicity by 8 times. The degradation pattern of trichlorfon in water was systematically studied by LC-MS/MS. The experiment was conducted to investigate the acute toxicity of trichlorfon and DDVP on goldfish using a 1H NMR based metabolic approach combined with serum biochemistry, histopathological inspection and correlation network analysis. The changes of metabolic profile indicated that trichlorfon and DDVP influenced several pathways including oxidative stress, protein synthesis, energy metabolism and nucleic acid metabolism. Plasma was collected and then the hematological indicators of MDA, SOD, ALT, AST BUN and CRE were measured. The histopathological alternations were observed by H&E staining, which showed the tubular epithelial cell swelling, cytoplasmic loosening in the kidney. This study verified the applicability and potential of metabonomics based on 1H NMR in pesticide environmental risk assessment, and provided a feasible method for the study of overall toxicity of pesticides in water environment.