Potential physiological effects of pharmaceutical compounds in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) implied by transcriptomic analysis

• Published in: Environmental Science and Pollution Research
• Main Authors: Hampel, Miriam, Alonso, Esteban, Aparicio, Irene, Bron, James E., Santos, Juan Luis, Taggart, John B., Leaver, Michael J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 2010
• Subjects: Acetaminophen; Atenolol; Atlantic salmon; Carbamazepine; cDNA microarrays; KEGG pathway analysis; Pharmaceuticals; Sublethal effects; Transcriptomics; Salmo salar
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/43598; https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-009-0282-6

7 páginas, 3 figuras, 4 tablas. Background, aim, and scope: Pharmaceuticals are emerging pollutants widely used in everyday urban activities which can be detected in surface, ground, and drinking waters. Their presence is derived from consumption of medicines, disposal of expired medications, release of treated and untreated urban effluents, and from the pharmaceutical industry. Their growing use has become an alarming environmental problem which potentially will become dangerous in the future. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about long-term effects in non-target organisms as well as for human health. Toxicity testing has indicated a relatively low acute toxicity to fish species, but no information is available on possible sublethal effects. This study provides data on the physiological pathways involved in the exposure of Atlantic salmon as representative test species to three pharmaceutical compounds found in ground, surface, and drinking waters based on the evaluation of the xenobiotic-induced impairment resulting in the activation and silencing of specific genes. Discussion: Energy-related pathways have been altered under exposure in all the selected treatments, indicating a possible energy budget leakage due to additional processes resulting from the exposure to environmental contaminants. Observed induction of pathways may indicate additional processes involved in the mode of action of the selected pharmaceuticals which may not have been detected with conventional methods like quantitative PCR in which only suspected features are analyzed punctually for effects. The employment of novel high-throughput screening techniques in combination with global pathway analysis methods, even if the organism is not completely annotated, allows the examination of a much broader range of candidates for potential effects of exposure at the gene level. Conclusions: The continuously growing number of annotations of representative species relevant for environmental quality testing is facilitating pathway ...