School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, China-America CRC for Environment & Health, Shandong Province, 72# Jimo Binhai Road, Qingdao, Shandong, 266237, PR China.
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, China-America CRC for Environment & Health, Shandong Province, 72# Jimo Binhai Road, Qingdao, Shandong, 266237, PR China.
Chemosphere. 2023 Sep;335:139139. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139139. Epub 2023 Jun 5.
Pyridine and its derivatives are widely used in many applications and inevitably cause extreme scenarios of serious soil contamination, which pose a threat to soil organisms. Still, the eco-toxicological effects and underlying mechanisms of pyridine-caused toxicity toward soil fauna have not been well established. Thus, earthworms (Eisenia fetida), coelomocytes, and oxidative stress-related proteins were selected as targeted receptors to probe the ecotoxicity mechanism of extreme pyridine soil exposure targeted to earthworms by using a combination of in vivo animal experiments, cell-based in vitro tests, in vitro functional and conformational analyses, and in silico analyses. The results showed that pyridine caused severe toxicity to E. fetida at extreme environmental concentrations. Exposure of pyridine induced excessive ROS formation in earthworms, causing oxidative stress and various deleterious effects, including lipid damage, DNA injury, histopathological change, and decreased defense capacity. Also, pyridine destroyed the cell membrane of earthworm coelomic cells and triggered a significant cytotoxicity. Importantly, the intracellular ROS (e.g., O, HO, and OH·) was release-activated, which eventually inducing oxidative stress effects (lipid peroxidation, inhibited defense capacity, and genotoxicity) through the ROS-mediated mitochondrial pathway. Moreover, the antioxidant defence mechanisms in coelomocytes responded quickly to reduce ROS-mediated oxidative injury. It was conformed that the abnormal expression of targeted genes associated with oxidative stress in coelomic cells was activated after pyridine exposure. Particularly, we found that the normal conformation (particle sizes, intrinsic fluorescence, and polypeptide backbone structure) of CAT/SOD was destroyed by the direct binding of pyridine. Furthermore, pyridine bound easily to the active center of CAT, but preferentially to the junction cavity of two subunits of SOD, which is considered to be a reason for impaired protein function in cells and in vitro. Based on these evidences, the ecotoxicity mechanisms of pyridine toward soil fauna are elucidated based on multi-level evaluation.
吡啶及其衍生物广泛应用于许多领域,不可避免地会造成严重的土壤污染极端情况,对土壤生物构成威胁。然而,吡啶对土壤无脊椎动物的毒性的生态毒理学效应和潜在机制尚未得到很好的建立。因此,选择蚯蚓(赤子爱胜蚓)、体腔细胞和与氧化应激相关的蛋白质作为靶受体,通过体内动物实验、基于细胞的体外测试、体外功能和构象分析以及计算分析相结合,探究极端吡啶土壤暴露对蚯蚓的生态毒性机制。结果表明,吡啶在极端环境浓度下对赤子爱胜蚓造成严重毒性。吡啶暴露导致蚯蚓中过量 ROS 的形成,引起氧化应激和各种有害影响,包括脂质损伤、DNA 损伤、组织病理学变化和防御能力下降。此外,吡啶破坏了蚯蚓体腔细胞的细胞膜,引发了显著的细胞毒性。重要的是,细胞内 ROS(如 O、HO 和 OH·)被释放激活,最终通过 ROS 介导的线粒体途径诱导氧化应激效应(脂质过氧化、抑制防御能力和遗传毒性)。此外,体腔细胞中的抗氧化防御机制迅速响应,以减少 ROS 介导的氧化损伤。结果证实,吡啶暴露后,与氧化应激相关的靶基因在体腔细胞中的异常表达被激活。特别是,我们发现吡啶直接结合破坏了 CAT/SOD 相关的靶向基因的正常构象(粒径、内源荧光和多肽主链结构)。此外,吡啶容易与 CAT 的活性中心结合,但优先与 SOD 两个亚基的连接腔结合,这被认为是细胞内和体外蛋白质功能受损的原因之一。基于这些证据,从多层次评价阐明了吡啶对土壤无脊椎动物的生态毒性机制。