Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal,
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2014 May;21(9):6258-62. doi: 10.1007/s11356-014-2584-6. Epub 2014 Feb 19.
The simultaneous presence of distinct compounds in the aquatic environment can be causative of various toxicological interactions. This scenario challenges ecotoxicologists, since the assessment of toxicological effects caused by the simultaneous presence of multiple substances is by far more complicated. An illustrative example can be given by mentioning the anticholinesterasic compounds: by studying the level of cholinesterase impairment of an exposed organism, it is possible to ascertain the level of exposure to all anticholinesterasics (despite their chemical classes and natures) that the organism was subjected to. In this work, we describe the effects of three chemically different, albeit mechanistically, and toxicologically similar compounds (copper, chlorfenvinphos, and pyridostigmine) on cholinesterases of the fish Gambusia holbrooki. The results showed that the combinatorial effects may be of considerable extent, even for levels of exposure that are close to the ones already reported in the wild, for each isolated compound.
水生环境中不同化合物的同时存在可能会导致各种毒理学相互作用。这种情况给生态毒理学家带来了挑战，因为评估多种物质同时存在所引起的毒理学效应要复杂得多。一个说明性的例子可以提到抗胆碱酯酶化合物：通过研究暴露生物体中胆碱酯酶的损伤程度，可以确定生物体所接触到的所有抗胆碱酯酶物质（尽管它们的化学类别和性质不同）的暴露水平。在这项工作中，我们描述了三种化学性质不同但在机制和毒理学上相似的化合物（铜、氯芬磷和吡啶斯的明）对食蚊鱼 Gambusia holbrooki 胆碱酯酶的影响。结果表明，即使对于每个单独化合物已经在野外报道过的接近水平的暴露，组合效应也可能相当大。
