Co-occurrence of antiseptic triclocarban and chiral anti-inflammatory ibuprofen in environment: Association between biological effect in sediment and risk to human health

Han Qu; Holly Barrett; Bin Wang; Jiajun Han; Fang Wang; Wenwen Gong; Junxue Wu; Wei Wang; Gang Yu

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124871

Co-occurrence of antiseptic triclocarban and chiral anti-inflammatory ibuprofen in environment: Association between biological effect in sediment and risk to human health

J Hazard Mater. 2021 Apr 5:407:124871. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124871. Epub 2020 Dec 16.

Authors

Han Qu¹, Holly Barrett², Bin Wang³, Jiajun Han², Fang Wang⁴, Wenwen Gong⁵, Junxue Wu⁶, Wei Wang⁴, Gang Yu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; College of Pharmacy, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85712, United States.
² Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 3H6, Canada.
³ Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁴ Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁵ Beijing Research Center for Agricultural Standards and Testing, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Science, Beijing 100097, China.
⁶ Institute of Plant and Environmental Protection, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Science, Beijing 100097, China.

PMID: 33360191
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124871

Abstract

Residues of antiseptics and drugs have been ubiquitously detected in aquatic water-sediment systems, and are thus considered emerging contaminants that threaten our global environment. To investigate the potential risk of ibuprofen and triclocarban in sediment, effects of enzyme activity on the enantioselective degradation in sediment were investigated. Enantioselective fate of rac-ibuprofen was observed in sediment with R-enantiomer exhibiting preferential degradation. Enzyme evidence showed that high levels of triclocarban could significantly inhibit activities of catalase and urease activities in sediment, as well as increase the half-life of ibuprofen (from 5.8 d to 10.1 d). Cytotoxicity data suggested that cell growth processes were significantly affected by ibuprofen and triclocarban co-exposure, which was consistent with apoptosis results. Additionally, the expression of several proteins (Cyto-c, Nrf2, p62, Keap1, NQO1, and Pink1) were markedly induced upon exposure to ibuprofen in the presence of triclocarban. In conclusion, these findings illustrated that co-occurrence of ibuprofen and triclocarban residues have synergistic adverse effects to the environment and synergistically threaten human health.

Keywords: Biological effect; Chiral; Emerging contaminants; Health risk.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anti-Infective Agents, Local*
Anti-Inflammatory Agents
Carbanilides
Humans
Ibuprofen / toxicity
Kelch-Like ECH-Associated Protein 1
NF-E2-Related Factor 2
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Anti-Infective Agents, Local
Anti-Inflammatory Agents
Carbanilides
Kelch-Like ECH-Associated Protein 1
NF-E2-Related Factor 2
Water Pollutants, Chemical
triclocarban
Ibuprofen