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Nanoplastics increase the toxicity of a pharmaceutical, at environmentally relevant concentrations – A mixture design with Daphnia magna
Summary
Researchers found that polystyrene nanoplastics significantly increased the toxicity of the pharmaceutical diphenhydramine to Daphnia magna water fleas at environmentally relevant concentrations. The combination caused oxidative damage that was not observed when organisms were exposed to either substance alone, indicating a synergistic interaction. The study highlights that the co-occurrence of nanoplastics and pharmaceutical pollutants in water may create compounding risks for aquatic organisms.
In aquatic environments, nanoplastics (NPls) can adsorb pharmaceuticals. However, throughout the scientific community, there is scarce knowledge about the interactive effects of the mixture nanoplastics (NPls) with pharmaceuticals to aquatic organisms. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate if the pharmaceutical diphenhydramine (DPH) toxicological effects alters when in presence of polystyrene NPls (PSNPls). To achieve this, Daphnia magna immobilization and different biochemical biomarkers (48-hours exposure) were assessed. Synergistic interactions occurred at environmentally relevant concentrations, PSNPls+DPH induced oxidative damage, whereas no effect was observed at single exposures. With the increase of PSNPls concentration, the DPH concentration causing 50% of effect (EC50) for organisms' immobilization decreased to 0.001 mg/L. In silico analysis suggested that the DPH toxicity to D. magna occurs via the sodium-dependent serotonin transporter. The results showed interactive effects between PSNPls and DPH (implying harmful effects on D. magna), allowing more thoughtful decisions by society and policymakers regarding plastics and pharmaceuticals.
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