Prioritization based on risk assessment to study the bioconcentration and biotransformation of pharmaceuticals in glass eels (Anguilla anguilla) from the Adour estuary (Basque Country, France)

• Published in: Environmental Pollution
• Main Authors: Alvarez-Mora, Iker, Bolliet, Valérie, Lopez-Herguedas, Naroa, Castro, Lyen, Anakabe, Eneritz, Monperrus, Mathilde, Etxebarria, Nestor
• Other Authors: Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of the Basque Country UPV/ EHU, P.O. Box 644, E-48080, Bilbao, Spain, University of the Basque Country = Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV / EHU), Plentzia Marine Station, University of the Basque Country, Ecologie Comportementale et Biologie des Populations de Poissons (ECOBIOP), Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (UPPA)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, University of the Basque Country, 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), Agencia Estatal de Investigaci ́on (AEI) of Spain, European Regional Development Fund through project CTM2017–84763-C3–1-R, Basque Government through the financial support as a consolidated group of the Basque Research System (IT1213–19), University of the Basque Country, Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: Glass eel; Contaminants of emerging concern; Bioconcentration; Biotransformation; Suspect screening; HPLC-HRMS; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDV.TOX]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Toxicology; Anguilla anguilla
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03806233; https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03806233/document; https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03806233/file/2022_AlvarezMora_EnvironmentalPollution.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120016

International audience The presence of contaminants of emerging concern in the aquatic environment directly impacts water-living organisms and can alter their living functions. These compounds are often metabolized and excreted, but they can also be accumulated and spread through the food chain. The metabolized contaminants can also lead to the formation of new compounds with unknown toxicity and bioaccumulation potential. In this work, we have studied the occurrence, bioconcentration, and biotransformation of CECs in glass eels (Anguilla anguilla) using UHPLC-HRMS. To select the target CECs, we first carried out an environmental risk assessment of the WWTP effluent that releases directly into the Adour estuary (Bayonne, Basque Country, France). The risk quotients of every detected contaminant were calculated and three ecotoxicologically relevant contaminants were chosen to perform the exposure experiment: propranolol, diazepam, and irbesartan. An experiment of 14 days consisting of 7 days of exposure and 7 days of depuration was carried out to measure the bioconcentration of the chosen compounds. The quantitative results of the concentrations in glass eel showed that diazepam and irbesartan reached BCF ≈10 on day 7, but both compounds were eliminated after 7 days of depuration. On the other hand, propranolol's concentration remains constant all along with the experiment, and its presence can be detected even in the non-exposed control group, which might suggest environmental contamination. Two additional suspect screening strategies were used to identify metabolization products of the target compounds and other xenobiotics already present in wild glass eels. Only one metabolite was identified, nordiazepam, a well-known diazepam metabolite, probably due to the low metabolic rate of glass eels at this stage. The xenobiotic screening confirmed the presence of more xenobiotics in wild glass eels, prominent among them, the pharmaceuticals exemestane, primidone, iloprost, and norethandrolone. ☆ This paper has been ...