Department of Biology, Laboratory of General Biology, University of Ha'il, Ha'il, 81451, Saudi Arabia; Section of Histology-Cytology, Medicine Faculty of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, La Rabta-Tunis, 1007, Tunisia.
University of Carthage, Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte, Laboratory of Environment Biomonitoring, Coastal Ecology and Ecotoxicology Unit, 7021, Zarzouna, Tunisia.
Environ Pollut. 2023 Feb 15;319:121007. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121007. Epub 2023 Jan 3.
The current study presents the results of an experiment carried to assess the impact of azithromycin, a COVID-19 drug, probably accumulated in marine sediments for three years, since the start of the pandemic, on benthic marine nematodes. It was explored the extent to which a common macrophyte from the Mediterranean Sea influenced the toxic impact of azithromycin on meiobenthic nematodes. Metals are known to influence toxicity of azithromycin. The nematofauna from a metallically pristine site situated in Bizerte bay, Tunisia, was exposed to two concentrations of azithromycin [i.e. 5 and 10 μg l]. In addition, two masses of the common macrophyte Posidonia oceanica [10 and 20% Dry Weight (DW)] were considered and associated with azithromycin into four possible combinations. The abundance and the taxonomic diversity of the nematode communities decreased significantly following the exposure to azithromycin, which was confirmed by the toxicokinetic data and behaving as substrate for P-glycoprotein (P-gp). The toxicity of 5 μg l dosage of azithromycin was partially reduced at 10% DW of Posidonia and completely at 20% DW. The results showed that 5 μg l of azithromycin can be reduced by the macrophyte P. oceanica when present in the environment at low masses as 10% DW.
本研究报告了一项实验的结果，该实验旨在评估自疫情开始以来三年中可能在海洋沉积物中积累的 COVID-19 药物阿奇霉素对底栖海洋线虫的影响。本研究探讨了一种来自地中海的常见大型海藻对阿奇霉素对小型底栖线虫的毒性影响的程度。已知金属会影响阿奇霉素的毒性。来自突尼斯比塞大湾一个金属纯净地点的线虫动物群暴露于两种浓度的阿奇霉素[即 5 和 10μg l]。此外，考虑了两种常见大型海藻波西多尼亚海草的质量[10 和 20%干重(DW)]，并将其与阿奇霉素结合成四种可能的组合。线虫群落的丰度和分类多样性在暴露于阿奇霉素后显著下降，这得到了毒代动力学数据的证实，并被证实是 P-糖蛋白(P-gp)的底物。5μg l 剂量的阿奇霉素的毒性在 10% DW 的波西多尼亚海草中部分降低，在 20% DW 中完全降低。结果表明，当环境中存在低质量的大型海藻 10% DW 时，5μg l 的阿奇霉素可以被这种大型海藻减少。
