Abstract
Reports have shown that residues of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites can pose toxicological threats to organisms living in aquatic ecosystem. Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, was exposed at 0.17, 0.34, and 0.68 mg L−1 of diclofenac up to 60 days in a renewal static bioassay system. Antioxidant enzymes reactions, molecular responses, activities of energy metabolism proteins, and the neurotoxic potentials of the drug in the brain and fish muscle were evaluated. Antioxidant enzyme activities such as superoxide dismutase, glutathione-S-transferase, and also fructose 1, 6 bisphosphatase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase as well as the levels of lipid peroxidation and protein carbonyl were elevated, while glutathione peroxidase, total reduced glutathione, and acetylcholinesterase in the brain and muscles of the treated groups were significantly inhibited in a dose-dependent association. Expression of superoxide dismutase (sod), catalase (cat), and heat shock proteins (hsp 70) genes in brain and muscle tissues was up-regulated. Continuous treatment with sublethal diclofenac for a long time can induce oxidative imbalance, cause neurotoxicity, and alter the expression of genes related to stress in Nile tilapia, suggesting the use of these biomarkers in monitoring the adverse effects the pharmaceuticals could cause to organisms in aquatic ecosystem for possible mitigation.
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The first author thanks the Indian-African fellowship programme for making available the funding and finance used in the study. The authors are very grateful to the Director, Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, India, for supplying the apparatus and other resources, adopted for the investigation.
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MNOA designed, set up the experiment, analysed and interpreted the molecular responses of the fish to the drug, and was a major contributor in drafting the paper. KK analysed and interpreted the antioxidant enzymes. NP analysed energy metabolism proteins. PKP did data analysis and redrafting of the manuscript. All authors read and endorsed the latest version of the manuscript.
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The experiment is in accordance with the care and animal wellbeing legislation of India. The research was authorized by the Board of Studies of Fish of the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (Deemed University), Mumbai, India. The welfare as well as care of fish adopted in this research was in agreement with the recommendation of the Committee for the Purpose of Regulation and Monitoring of Research on Animals, Govt. of India. This paper has no investigation based on human parts.
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Ajima, M.N.O., Kumar, K., Poojary, N. et al. Sublethal diclofenac induced oxidative stress, neurotoxicity, molecular responses and alters energy metabolism proteins in Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 44494–44504 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13899-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13899-2