Späth Jana, Nording Malin, Lindberg Richard, Brodin Tomas, Jansson Stina, Yang Jun, Wan Debin, Hammock Bruce, Fick Jerker
Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, SE 90187 Umeå, Sweden.
Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, SE 90187 Umeå, Sweden.
Environ Chem. 2020;17(1):1-5. doi: 10.1071/en19270. Epub 2020 Jan 8.
Unprecedented levels of chemicals of anthropogenic origin are currently released into surface waters globally. Wastewater treatment plant effluent has been identified as a major source, containing a broad mixture of pharmaceuticals and consumer chemicals. Therefore, there is a need for implementation of advanced wastewater treatment techniques, such as ozonation and adsorption methods, to reduce the contamination. However, there are conflicting findings on the toxicity of treated effluent and only limited possibilities for assessing the effect-based removal efficiency (EBRE) of different treatment techniques. Here, we describe a metabolomics approach to detect perturbations in fatty acid catabolic pathways as a proxy for biological effects. Metabolites in three fatty acid pathways were analyzed in a common damselfly larva () by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The larvae were exposed for one week to either conventionally treated effluent (activated sludge treatment), effluent additionally treated with ozone or effluent additionally treated with biochar filtration and results were compared with those from tap water control exposure. Five lipoxygenase-derived oxylipins (9,10,13-TriHOME, 9,12,13-TriHOME, 9-HODE, 9-HOTrE, and 13-HOTrE) decreased in response to conventionally treated effluent exposure. By using an additional treatment step, oxylipin levels were restored with exception of 9,10,13-TriHOME (ozonated effluent), and 9-HOTrE and 13-HOTrE (effluent filtered with biochar). In conclusion, exposure to wastewater effluent affected fatty acid metabolite levels in damselfly larvae, and a subset of the analyzed metabolites may serve as indicators for biological effects in biota in response to effluent exposure. To that effect, our findings suggest a new metabolomics protocol for assessing EBRE.
目前，全球地表水中人为源化学物质的排放量达到了前所未有的水平。污水处理厂的出水已被确定为主要来源，其中含有多种药物和消费化学品。因此，需要采用先进的废水处理技术，如臭氧化和吸附法，以减少污染。然而，关于处理后出水的毒性存在相互矛盾的研究结果，评估不同处理技术的基于效果的去除效率（EBRE）的可能性也很有限。在这里，我们描述了一种代谢组学方法，通过检测脂肪酸分解代谢途径中的扰动来作为生物效应的指标。通过液相色谱-质谱联用分析了一种常见豆娘幼虫（）中三种脂肪酸途径的代谢物。将幼虫暴露于常规处理的出水（活性污泥处理）、经臭氧额外处理的出水或经生物炭过滤额外处理的出水中一周，然后将结果与自来水对照暴露的结果进行比较。暴露于常规处理的出水中后，5种脂氧合酶衍生的氧化脂质（9,10,13-TriHOME、9,12,13-TriHOME、9-HODE、9-HOTrE和13-HOTrE）减少。通过额外的处理步骤，除了9,10,13-TriHOME（臭氧处理的出水）以及9-HOTrE和13-HOTrE（生物炭过滤的出水）外，氧化脂质水平恢复。总之，暴露于废水出水会影响豆娘幼虫中的脂肪酸代谢物水平，并且所分析的代谢物子集中的一部分可作为生物群对出水暴露产生生物效应的指标。为此，我们的研究结果提出了一种用于评估EBRE的新代谢组学方案。
