Cumulative effects of ibuprofen and air emersion in zebra mussels Dreissena polymorpha

Early-life long-term ibuprofen exposure reduces reproductive capacity involved in spermatogenesis impairment and associated with the transcription factor DAF-5 in Caenorhabditis elegans

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are emerging environmental contaminants and have raised significant concern due to their potential adverse impact on the environment. Ibuprofen is one of the most extensively used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and is also considered an environmental contaminant. The negative impact of ibuprofen on non-target organisms has been documented; however, the molecular mechanisms behind its reproductive toxicity remain unclear. We investigated the impact of early-life long-term ibuprofen exposure on reproductive capacity and its involvement of spermiogenesis in the non-target model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. Hermaphrodites were exposed to various ibuprofen concentrations (0.1, 1, 10, and 100 mg/L), resulting in a dose-dependent inhibition of reproduction. In addition, the lowest observed adverse effect concentration (LOAEC) for ibuprofen exposure on the total brood size of C. elegans was 0.1 mg/L, a concentration that falls within the environmentally relevant range for ibuprofen. Outcross progeny assays revealed a significant 47% reduction in total brood size for larval males (him-5) exposed to ibuprofen, while females (fog-2) exhibited only a minor effect. We found that early-life long-term ibuprofen exposure impairs spermatogenesis. The number of mitotic cells significantly reduced by 31%. The rate of sperm malformation in exposed males was 63%, much higher than in unexposed males (11%). Additionally, the percentage of sperm activation decreased from 89% to 39% in ibuprofen-exposed worms. Mechanistic insights indicated that ibuprofen downregulated mRNA levels of genes related to spermatogenesis and DAF-7/TGF-β signaling. RNAi assays provided evidence for the crucial role of the transcription factor DAF-5 in mediating the spermatogenesis impairment by ibuprofen. Our study provides insight into the environmental impacts of pharmaceutical contaminants, such as ibuprofen, on both male and female reproductive systems to safeguard environmental health.

Insight into the adsorptive removal of ibuprofen using porous carbonaceous materials: A review

Over the last decade, the removal of pharmaceuticals from aquatic bodies has garnered substantial attention from the scientific community. Ibuprofen (IBP), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, is released into the environment in pharmaceutical waste as well as medical, hospital, and household effluents. Adsorption technology is a highly efficient approach to reduce the IBP in the aquatic environment, particularly at low IBP concentrations. Due to the exceptional surface properties of carbonaceous materials, they are considered ideal adsorbents for the IBP removal of, with high binding capacity. Given the importance of the topic, the adsorptive removal of IBP from effluent using various carbonaceous adsorbents, including activated carbon, biochar, graphene-based materials, and carbon nanostructures, has been compiled and critically reviewed. Furthermore, the adsorption behavior, binding mechanisms, the most effective parameters, thermodynamics, and regeneration methods as well as the cost analysis were comprehensively reviewed for modified and unmodified carbonaceous adsorbents. The compiled studies on the IBP adsorption shows that the IBP uptake of some carbon-based adsorbents is significantly than that of commercial activated carbons. In the future, much attention is needed for practical utilization and upscaling of the research findings to aid the management and sustainability of water resource.

Prevalence of organic micropollutants in the Yamuna River, Delhi, India: seasonal variations and governing factors

This work primarily emphases on evaluating the prevalence of organic micropollutants (OMPs) in the perennial Yamuna River (YR) that flow through the national capital of India, Delhi. Sixteen sampling campaigns (non-monsoon, n = 9; monsoon n = 7) were organized to understand the seasonal variations with special emphasis on monsoon. We have found fifty-five OMPs in the monsoon; while forty-seven were detected in non-monsoon. Fifty-seven screened and quantified OMPs in the most polluted stretch of River Yamuna included the pharmaceutically active compounds, pesticides, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, phthalates, personal care products, fatty acids, food additives, hormones, and trace organics present in hospital wastes. During monsoon months, compounds for which concentrations exceeded 50 μg/L were: adenine (64.6 μg/L), diethyl phthalate (62.9 μg/L), and octamethyltrisiloxane (56.9 μg/L); and the same for non-monsoon months was only for 1-dodecanethiol (52.3 μg/L). The average concentration of OMPs in non-monsoon months indicate PhACs>PCPs>Pesticides>Fatty acids>Hospital waste>Hormones>Pesticides>EDCs. In monsoon months due to surface runoff and high volume of untreated wastewater discharges few more OMPs concentrations were detected which mainly includes PhACs (clofibric acid, diclofenac sodium, gemfibrozil, ketoprofen), pesticides (aldrin, metribuzin, atrazine, simazine). Due to dilution effect in the monsoon months, average concentrations of 3-acetamido-5-bromobenzoic acid (PhACs) was reduced from 45.22 μg/L to 14.07 μg/L, whereas some EDCs such as 2,4- Di-tert-amylphenol, 3,5- di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, Triphenylphosphine oxide, Benzophenone were found in much higher concentrations in the monsoon months. Octamethyltrisiloxane (PCPs) was detected 50 times higher in concentration in the monsoon months. Interestingly, the concentration of about 50 % of the OMPs was more in the monsoon samples than in non-monsoon samples which is contrary to the general understanding that monsoon-induced dilution lowers the concentrations of OMPs. In RY water higher magnitude of diclofenac sodium, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and clofibric acid was found than Europe and North America rivers. Hormones such as estriol and estrone in RY water are found 70 to 100 times higher than the maximum reported concentrations in the US streams. Finally, various OMPs responded differently to the monsoon season as evident from multivariate analyses.

Effect of starvation and pesticide exposure on neutral lipid composition of the digestive gland of males of the apple snails Pomacea canaliculata

Pollutants as well as starvation usually modify homeostasis of neutral lipids in aquatic organisms. However, studies on the simultaneous effects of both stressors are scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of toxicant exposure under starvation conditions on neutral lipids of the freshwater snail Pomacea canaliculata, selected as the model organism. Starved adult male snails were exposed to sublethal concentration of the pesticide cypermethrin (100 µg/L) during 4 and 10 days. Fed snails were sacrificed at the onset of the experiment (T₀), along with starved snails exposed to the pesticide vehicle (ethanol) and another group without solvent served as controls. Total lipid content, neutral lipid classes, fatty acid composition, and pesticide accumulation were determined in the digestive gland of snails. The ethanol concentration used was not an additional stressful agent. As expected, starvation caused a decrease in neutral lipid content in the digestive gland of snails with respect to T₀ snails. Pesticide exposure caused, on the other hand, an increase in triacylglycerol content compared to ethanol exposure at day 10 of the bioassay. This increment correlated with the bioconcentration of cypermethrin, which was 47% higher by day 10 than by day 4. The fatty acid profile of triacylglycerols in the digestive gland was significantly altered under starvation and pesticide exposure. Stressed male snails showed the ability to preserve polyunsaturated fatty acids, as evidenced by their significant increase with respect to T₀ snails. These results suggest that the alteration of lipid homeostasis could be involved in an adaptive mechanism of aquatic organisms to lipophilic and obesogenic pollutants.

Ecotoxicological impacts of oil sand mining activity to endemic caged mussels Pyganodon grandis

The intense mining extraction of oil sand (OS) has increased over the last few decades, raising concerns about the release of OS contaminants and toxicity in resident aquatic organisms in the Athabasca River (Alberta, Canada). To address this, endemic Pyganodon grandis mussels were caged for 6 weeks at various upstream and downstream sites of industrial OS mining activities. Post-exposure mussels were then analyzed for light/medium/heavy polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in tissues, general health (weight to length ratio, growth rate, air survival time), biotransformation (cytochrome P4501A and 3A and glutathione S-transferase activities), oxidative stress/inflammation (lipid peroxidation-LPO and arachidonate cyclooxygenase-COX), genotoxicity (DNA strand breaks), and gonad status (triglycerides, GSI and vitellogenin-like proteins). The following effects significantly differed between OS mining area and natural/background sites: health condition, growth rate, air survival time, COX (immune/inflammation) activity, P4501A/GST activity, LPO and DNA breaks in the digestive gland and vitellogenin-like proteins in the gonad. Correlation analysis revealed that the biochemical responses were scaled to at least one of the following impacts at the individual level: air survival time, weight to length ratio, growth rate and vitellogenin-like proteins. These indices were therefore identified as key adverse outcome pathways of mussels impacted by OS mining activities. Based on the relative levels of light/medium/heavy PAHs in tissues, the observed effects appears to be associated rather to the disturbance of OS in this area than contamination from OS tailing ponds leaching into the aquatic environment.

Identifying physiological traits of species resilience against environmental stress in freshwater mussels

The advent of global warming events on already stressed organisms by pollution and loss of habitats raised concerns on the sustainability of local mussel populations. The purpose of this study was to study the physiology 6 commonly found species of freshwater mussels in the attempt to identify species at risk from global warming and pollution. The following species were examined for mass/length, energy metabolism, air survival and lipid peroxidation (LPO): Elliptio complanata (EC), Eurynia dilatata (ED), Pyganodon cataracta (PC), Pyganodon species (Psp), Lasmigona costata (LC) and Dreissena bugenis (DB). The data revealed that the estimated longevity of each species was associated with mussel mass, mitochondria electron transport (MET), temperature-dependent MET but negatively related with mitochondria levels in LPO and the colonization potential. The colonization potential was derived from the scaling of MET activity and mass, which confirmed that DB mussels are more invasive than the other species followed by Psp. Resistance to air emersion was significantly associated with longevity, mass and length and mitochondria LPO. Hence, organisms with low lifetimes, mass or length with high LPO are less able to survive for longer periods in air. In conclusion, longevity and air survival was positively associated with mass and energy metabolism but negatively with oxidative damage. This study proposes key markers in identifying species more at risk to contaminant stress, decreased water levels and global warming.

Metabolism of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs by non-target wild-living organisms

The presence of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in the environment is a fact, and aquatic and soil organisms are chronically exposed to trace levels of these emerging pollutants. This review presents the current state of knowledge on the metabolic pathways of NSAIDs in organisms at various levels of biological organisation. More than 150 publications dealing with target or non-target analysis of selected NSAIDs (mainly diclofenac, ibuprofen, and naproxen) were collected. The metabolites of phase I and phase II are presented. The similarity of NSAIDs metabolism to that in mammals was observed in bacteria, microalgae, fungi, higher plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. The differences, such as newly detected metabolites, the extracellular metabolism observed in bacteria and fungi, or phase III metabolism in plants, are highlighted. Metabolites detected in plants (conjugates with sugars and amino acids) but not found in any other organisms are described. Selected, in-depth studies with isolated bacterial strains showed the possibility of transforming NSAIDs into assimilable carbon sources. It has been found that some of the metabolites show higher toxicity than their parent forms. The presence of metabolites of NSAIDs in the environment is the cumulative effect of their introduction with wastewaters, their formation in wastewater treatment plants, and their transformation by non-target wild-living organisms.

Lipidomics perturbations in the brain of adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) after exposure to chiral ibuprofen

The stereoselective effects of chiral ibuprofen (IBU) were studied using lipidomics by exposing adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) to an environmental concentration of 5 μg/L for 28 days. After treatment with rac-/R-(-)-/S-(+)-IBU, the brain tissue of the zebrafish was harvested to analyze for lipid metabolites by using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Results showed that the six classes of lipids, namely, glycerophospholipids, sterol lipids, prenol lipids, fatty acyls, glycerolipids, and sphingolipids, including 46 biomarkers, were affected after exposure. The different influences on metabolites were observed in the rac-/R-(-)-/S-(+)-IBU-treated samples. The rac-IBU treatment remarkably affected nine lipids. The R-(-)-IBU and S-(+)-IBU treatments had remarkably effects on six and four lipids, respectively. According to the HMDB database and KEGG pathways, nine important lipids were successfully matched to the involved biochemical pathways, such as glycerophospholipid metabolism, arachidonic acid metabolism, and linoleic acid metabolism. Therefore, IBU can cause disorders in the metabolism of the brain lipids of adult zebrafish and affect the composition of biological membranes, inflammatory responses, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The significant difference in the effects of R-(-)-IBU and S-(+)-IBU on lipidomics indicated that chiral IBU has stereoselective toxicity to aquatic organisms. Our study provided new insights into the environmental toxicology and highlighted the hazard of pharmaceutical and personal care product pollution in aquatic environments.

Anthropogenic contaminants of high concern: Existence in water resources and their adverse effects

Existence of anthropogenic contaminants (ACs) in different environmental matrices is a serious and unresolved concern. For instance, ACs from different sectors, such as industrial, agricultural, and pharmaceutical, are found in water bodies with considerable endocrine disruptors potency and can damage the biotic components of the environment. The continuous ACs exposure can cause cellular toxicity, apoptosis, genotoxicity, and alterations in sex ratios in human beings. Whereas, aquatic organisms show bioaccumulation, trophic chains, and biomagnification of ACs through different entry route. These problems have been found in many countries around the globe, making them a worldwide concern. ACs have been found in different environmental matrices, such as water reservoirs for human consumption, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs), groundwaters, surface waters, rivers, and seas, which demonstrate their free movement within the environment in an uncontrolled manner. This work provides a detailed overview of ACs occurrence in water bodies along with their toxicological effect on living organisms. The literature data reported between 2017 and 2018 is compiled following inclusion-exclusion criteria, and the obtained information was mapped as per type and source of ACs. The most important ACs are pharmaceuticals (diclofenac, ibuprofen, naproxen, ofloxacin, acetaminophen, progesterone ranitidine, and testosterone), agricultural products or pesticides (atrazine, carbendazim, fipronil), narcotics and illegal drugs (amphetamines, cocaine, and benzoylecgonine), food industry derivatives (bisphenol A, and caffeine), and personal care products (triclosan, and other related surfactants). Considering this threatening issue, robust detection and removal strategies must be considered in the design of WWTPs and DWTPs.

Pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environments: Evidence of emerged threat and future challenges for marine organisms

Pharmaceuticals are nowadays recognized as a threat for aquatic ecosystems. The growing consumption of these compounds and the enhancement of human health in the past two decades have been paralleled by the continuous input of such biologically active molecules in natural environments. Waste water treatment plants (WWTPs) have been identified as a major route for release of pharmaceuticals in aquatic bodies where concentrations ranging from ng/L to μg/L are ubiquitously detected. Since medicines principles are designed to be effective at very low concentrations, they have the potential to interfere with biochemical and physiological processes of aquatic species over their entire life cycle. Investigations on occurrence, bioaccumulation and effects in non target organisms are fragmentary, particularly for marine ecosystems, and related to only a limited number over the 4000 substances classified as pharmaceuticals: hence, there is a urgent need to prioritize the environmental sustainability of the most relevant compounds. The aim of this review is to summarize the main adverse effects documented for marine species exposed in both field and laboratory conditions to different classes of pharmaceuticals including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, psychiatric, cardiovascular, hypocholesterolaemic drugs, steroid hormones and antibiotics. Despite a great scientific advancement has been achieved, our knowledge is still limited on pharmaceuticals behavior in chemical mixtures, as well as their interactions with other environmental stressors. Complex ecotoxicological effects are increasingly documented and multidisciplinary, integrated approaches will be helpful to clarify the environmental hazard of these "emerged" pollutants in marine environment.

Multiscale Approach to Deciphering the Molecular Mechanisms Involved in the Direct and Intergenerational Effect of Ibuprofen on Mosquito Aedes aegypti

The anti-inflammatory ibuprofen is a ubiquitous surface water contaminant. However, the chronic impact of this pharmaceutical on aquatic invertebrate populations remains poorly understood. In model insect Aedes aegypti, we investigated the intergenerational consequences of parental chronic exposure to an environmentally relevant concentration of ibuprofen. While exposed individuals did not show any phenotypic changes, their progeny showed accelerated development and an increased tolerance to starvation. In order to understand the mechanistic processes underpinning the direct and intergenerational impacts of ibuprofen, we combined transcriptomic, metabolomics, and hormone kinetics studies at several life stages in exposed individuals and their progeny. This integrative approach revealed moderate transcriptional changes in exposed larvae consistent with the pharmacological mode of action of ibuprofen. Parental exposure led to lower levels of several polar metabolites in progeny eggs and to major transcriptional changes in the following larval stage. These transcriptional changes, most likely driven by changes in the expression of numerous transcription factors and epigenetic regulators, led to ecdysone signaling and stress response potentiation. Overall, the present study illustrates the complexity of the molecular basis of the intergenerational pollutant response in insects and the importance of considering the entire life cycle of exposed organisms and of their progeny in order to fully understand the mode of action of pollutants and their impact on ecosystems.