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Subchronic toxicity of dietary sulfamethazine and nanoplastics in marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma): Insights from the gut microbiota and intestinal oxidative status
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Researchers found that dietary co-exposure to the antibiotic sulfamethazine and polystyrene nanoplastics in marine medaka caused significant disruption of gut microbiota composition and increased intestinal oxidative stress, with combined effects exceeding individual exposures.
Antibiotics and nanoplastics are two prevalent pollutants in oceans, posing a great threat to marine ecosystems. As antibiotics and nanoplastics are highly bioconcentrated in lower trophic levels, evaluating their impacts on marine organisms via dietary exposure route is of great importance. In this study, the individual and joint effects of dietborne sulfamethazine (SMZ) and nanoplastic fragments (polystyrene, PS) in marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) were investigated. After 30 days of dietary exposure, 4.62 mg/g SMZ decreased the Chao1 index (60.86% for females and 26.85% for males) and the Shannon index (68.95% for females and 65.05% for males) and significantly altered the structure of gut microbial communities in both sexes. The female fish exposed to 4.62 mg/g SMZ exhibited higher intestinal sod (43.5%), cat (38.5%) and gpx (39.6%) transcripts, indicating oxidative stress in the gut. PS alone at 3.45 mg/g slightly altered the composition of the gut microbiota. Interestingly, the mixture of SMZ and PS caused more modest effects on the gut microbiota and intestinal antioxidant physiology than the SMZ alone, suggesting that the presence of PS might alleviate the intestinal toxicity of SMZ in a scenario of dietary co-exposure. This study helps better understand the risk of antibiotics and nanoplastics to marine ecosystems.
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Researchers found that gut microbiota in marine medaka did not fully recover after 21 days of depuration following exposure to sulfamethazine and polystyrene nanoplastics, indicating that antibiotic and nanoplastic co-exposure can cause lasting disruption to fish gut microbial communities.
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Scientists exposed young medaka fish to the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole and polystyrene nanoplastics, both individually and together, to study their combined effects on intestinal health. They found that co-exposure caused more severe gut damage than either pollutant alone, disrupting the gut microbiome and triggering changes in gene expression related to immune defense and DNA repair. The study suggests that nanoplastics may amplify the harmful effects of antibiotics on fish in coastal environments.
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Researchers found that parental exposure to the antibiotic sulfamethazine and polystyrene nanoplastics altered gut microbial communities in offspring of marine medaka, demonstrating intergenerational effects of combined contaminant exposure on fish health.
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Researchers found that surface-modified nanoplastics (with carboxyl or amino groups) delayed the recovery of gut microbiota in marine medaka fish after combined exposure with the antibiotic sulfamethazine, compared to plain polystyrene nanoplastics. The modified nanoplastics were expelled more slowly from the fish and released more of the adsorbed antibiotic during digestion. The study suggests that real-world nanoplastics, which typically carry surface functional groups from environmental weathering, may pose greater risks to gut health than pristine particles.
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Researchers exposed estuarine fish to polystyrene microplastics and the antibiotic tetracycline, both alone and in combination, for four weeks. The combined exposure caused more severe disruption to gut bacteria and liver tissue than either pollutant alone, with microplastics appearing to worsen the effects of tetracycline. The study suggests that the co-occurrence of microplastics and antibiotics in coastal waters may pose greater ecological risks than either contaminant by itself.
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