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Combined toxicity and toxicity persistence of antidepressants citalopram and mirtazapine to zooplankton Daphnia magna

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Abstract

Citalopram (CTP) and mirtazapine (MTP) are two typical psychoactive drugs used for the depression treatment. As emerging pollutants, CTP and MTP have raised concern because of their harmful effect on aquatic organisms. Therefore, the ecotoxicological risk of these two pollutants to aquatic organisms should be given more attention. In this study, the effects of CTP and MTP on the feeding rate, heartbeat, nutritional enzymes, and their related gene expression of D. magna were investigated under single and binary mixture pollutant exposure. Subsequently, the recovery of exposed D. magna was studied to assess the toxic persistence of those pollutants. After 24-h exposure, the ingestion rate decreased by 34.2% and 21.5%, in the group of 1.45 mg/L CTP (C-H) and binary mixture with high concentration (Mix-H), respectively. After 24-h recovery, the feeding rate of D. magna was stimulated by a compensatory response. Over the exposure period, the heartbeat rate of D. magna increased significantly in the groups of CTP, MTP, and their binary mixture with low concentration (Mix-L), and then, their heartbeat rate was recovered during the recovery period. The activity of α-amylase (AMS) and trypsin were significantly changed in most of the exposed daphnia, both during the exposure and recovery period. CTP/MTP exposure stimulated the expression of the AMS gene. MTP and Mix-H exposure inhibited the expression of the trypsin gene and the other groups stimulated its expression. After 24-h recovery, the stimulating or inhibitory effects were alleviated. There were different responses between gene expression and enzyme activity. In conclusion, our results highlighted the toxic effects at high concentrations of single and mixed pollution of CTP and MTP on the feeding rate, heartbeat, AMS and trypsin enzyme activity, and expression of related genes of D. magna to assess the environment risk of them.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21876207), Research Project of Ecological Environment in Jiangsu Province (2020004), Double First-Class University Project (CPU2018GY21, 24), and College Undergraduate Training Program for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

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Author notes

  1. Yunfeng Ma and Dong Xu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, 211198, China

    Yunfeng Ma, Chenyang Li, Shu Wei, Ruixin Guo, Jianqiu Chen & Yanhua Liu

  2. School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Dong Xu

  3. Blood Transfusion Department, Wuhan University Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Yang Li

Authors
  1. Yunfeng Ma
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  2. Dong Xu
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  3. Chenyang Li
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  4. Shu Wei
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  5. Ruixin Guo
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  6. Yang Li
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  7. Jianqiu Chen
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  8. Yanhua Liu
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Contributions

Yunfeng Ma and Dong Xu carried out experiments, analyzed experimental results, and wrote the paper; Chenyang Li and Shu Wei developed the methodology; Ruixin Guo analyzed experimental results; Yang Li developed the methodology; Jianqiu Chen managed and coordinated responsibility for the research activity planning and execution; and Yanhua Liu developed the methodology.

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Correspondence to Jianqiu Chen.

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Highlights

1. The ingestion rate of D. magna was inhibited by CTP and CTP/MTP mixture.

2. The overcompensation response of the feeding rate occurred after recovery.

3. The heartbeats of D. magna increased after exposure to CTP and MTP.

4. The gene expression of AMS and trypsin was changed after exposure.

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Ma, Y., Xu, D., Li, C. et al. Combined toxicity and toxicity persistence of antidepressants citalopram and mirtazapine to zooplankton Daphnia magna. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 66100–66108 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20203-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20203-3

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