Simple and rapid formic acid sample treatment for the isolation of HgSe nanoparticles from animal tissues

• Published in: Analytica Chimica Acta
• Main Authors: El Hanafi, Khouloud, Gomez-Gomez, B., Pedrero, Zoyne, Bustamante, Paco, Cherel, Yves, Amouroux, David, Madrid, Y.
• Other Authors: Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux (IPREM), Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (UPPA)-Institut de Chimie - CNRS Chimie (INC-CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Universidad Complutense de Madrid = Complutense University of Madrid Madrid (UCM), LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut universitaire de France (IUF), Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (M.E.N.E.S.R.), Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), ANR-18-CE34-0004,MERSEL,Repousser les limites de la spéciation pour l'étude du mercure et de sa détoxication par le sélénium dans des organismes clés(2018)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: spICP-MS; Sample treatment; Seabirds; Mercury; Selenium; Tiemannite; [SDE.IE]Environmental Sciences/Environmental Engineering; [CHIM.ANAL]Chemical Sciences/Analytical chemistry; [SDV.TOX.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Toxicology/Ecotoxicology; Giant Petrels
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04032323; https://hal.science/hal-04032323/document; https://hal.science/hal-04032323/file/Simple%20and%20rapid%20formic%20acid%20sample%20treatment%20for%20the%20isolation.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2023.340952

International audience The present work explores for the first time the potential of formic acid on the extraction of tiemannite (HgSe) nanoparticles from seabird tissues, in particular giant petrels. Mercury (Hg) is considered one of the top ten chemicals of major public health concern. However, the fate and metabolic pathways of Hg in living organisms remain unknown. Methylmercury (MeHg), largely produced by microbial activity in the aquatic ecosystems is biomagnified in the trophic web. HgSe is considered the end-product of MeHg demethylation in biota and an increasing number of studies focuses on the characterization of this solid compound to understand its biomineralization. In this study, a conventional enzymatic treatment is compared with a simpler and environmentally friendly extraction by using formic acid (5 mL of = 50 % formic acid) as exclusive reagent. The analyses by spICP-MS of the resulting extracts from a variety of seabird biological tissues (liver, kidneys, brain, muscle) reveal comparable results by both extraction approaches in terms of nanoparticles stability and extraction efficiency. Therefore, the results included in this work demonstrate the good performance of employing organic acid as simple, cost effective and green procedure to extract HgSe nanoparticles from animal tissues. Moreover, an alternative consisting of a classical enzymatic procedure but with ultrasonic assistance reducing the extraction time from 12 h to 2 min is also described for the first time. The sample processing methodologies developed, combined with spICP-MS, have emerged as powerful tools for the rapid screening and quantification of HgSe nanoparticles in animal tissues. Finally, this combination allowed us to identify the possible occurrence of Cd particles and As particles associated with HgSe NPs in seabirds.