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Combined effect of microplastic, salinomycin and heating on Unio tumidus
Summary
Researchers studied how microplastics interact with a common veterinary antibiotic and elevated water temperatures to affect freshwater mussels. While microplastics and the antibiotic alone caused mild stress, the combination under warmer conditions dampened the mussels' protective enzyme responses rather than amplifying them. This finding highlights that the effects of microplastics cannot be studied in isolation, as real-world conditions involve multiple stressors that interact in complex and sometimes unexpected ways.
Microplastic (MP) and heating (T) suspected to modulate biological effects of aquatic contaminants. Salinomycin (Sal) is veterinary antibiotic and anticancer agent. The goal of this study was to examine the multistress effect of MP, Sal and T on the bioindicator bivalve mollusc. The Unio tumidus were treated with MP (1 mg L-1), Sal (0.6 µg L-1), their combination under 18° C (Mix) and 25° C (MixT) for 14 days. The digestive glands were analyzed. MP and Sal did not cause changes of Mn- and Cu,Zn-SOD, lipid peroxidation and Cyp-450-depended EROD levels, whereas catalase, GST and protein carbonyls (Sal-group) increased compared to control. In the Mix-group, enzymes, particularly EROD and GST (by 34% and 115% respectively) were up-regulated. However, in the MixT-group, they were corresponding to control or lesser (EROD, catalase). Our findings emphasize the need to take into account multistress interactions in the MP environmental risk assessment.