Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1007/s11356-023-29186-1
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Neurotoxicity in complex environmental mixtures—a case-study at River Danube in Novi Sad (Serbia) using zebrafish embryos
Author Massei, R.; Brack, W.; Seidensticker, S.; Hollert, H.; Muz, M.; Schulze, T. ORCID logo ; Krauss, M. ORCID logo ; Küster, E. ORCID logo
Source Titel Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Year 2023
Department BIOTOX; WANA; MET
Volume 30
Issue 42
Page From 96138
Page To 96146
Language englisch
Topic T9 Healthy Planet
T5 Future Landscapes
Supplements https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11356-023-29186-1/MediaObjects/11356_2023_29186_MOESM1_ESM.docx
Keywords Risk assessment; Wastewater; Enzyme biomarker; Effect-directed analysis (EDA); Pollution
Abstract Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors are an important class of neuroactive chemicals that are often detected in aquatic and terrestrial environments. The correct functionality of the AChE enzyme is linked to many important physiological processes such as locomotion and respiration. Consequently, it is necessary to develop new analytical strategies to identify harmful AChE inhibitors in the environment. It has been shown that mixture effects and oxidative stress may jeopardize the application of in vivo assays for the identification of AChE inhibitors in the environment. To confirm that in vivo AChE assays can be successfully applied when dealing with complex mixtures, an extract from river water impacted by non-treated wastewater was bio-tested using the acute toxicity fish embryo test (FET) and AChE inhibition assay with zebrafish. The zebrafish FET showed high sensitivity for the extract (LC10 = relative extraction factor 2.8) and we observed a significant inhibition of the AChE (40%, p < 0.01) after 4-day exposure. Furthermore, the extract was chromatographically fractionated into a total of 26 fractions to dilute the mixture effect and separate compounds according to their physico-chemical properties. As expected, non-specific acute effects (i.e., mortality) disappeared or evenly spread among the fractions, while AChE inhibition was still detected in five fractions. Chemical analysis did not detect any known AChE inhibitors in these active fractions. These results confirm that the AChE assay with Danio rerio can be applied for the detection of neuroactive effects induced in complex environmental samples, but also, they highlight the need to increase analytical and identification techniques for the detection of neurotoxic substances.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=27532
Massei, R., Brack, W., Seidensticker, S., Hollert, H., Muz, M., Schulze, T., Krauss, M., Küster, E. (2023):
Neurotoxicity in complex environmental mixtures—a case-study at River Danube in Novi Sad (Serbia) using zebrafish embryos
Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 30 (42), 96138 - 96146 10.1007/s11356-023-29186-1