Abstract:
The United Nations World Drug Report published in 2022 alarmed that the global market of illicit drugs is steadily expanding in space and scale. Substances of abuse are usually perceived in the light of threats to human health and public security, while the environmental aspects of their use and subsequent emissions usually remain less explored. However, as with other human activities, drug production, trade, and consumption of drugs may leave their environmental mark. Therefore, this paper aims to review the occurrence of illicit drugs in surface waters and their bioaccumulation and toxicity in fish. Illicit drugs of different groups, i.e., psychostimulants (methamphetamines/amphetamines, cocaine, and its metabolite benzoylecgonine) and depressants (opioids: morphine, heroin, methadone, fentanyl), can reach the aquatic environment through wastewater discharge as they are often not entirely removed during wastewater treatment processes, resulting in their subsequent circulation in nanomolar concentrations, potentially affecting aquatic biota, including fish. Exposure to such xenobiotics can induce oxidative stress and dysfunction to mitochondrial and lysosomal function, distort locomotion activity by regulating the dopaminergic and glutamatergic systems, increase the predation risk, instigate neurological disorders, disbalance neurotransmission, and produce histopathological alterations in the brain and liver tissues, similar to those described in mammals. Hence, this drugs-related multidimensional harm to fish should be thoroughly investigated in line with environmental protection policies before it is too late. At the same time, selected fish species (e.g., Danio rerio, zebrafish) can be employed as models to study toxic and binge-like effects of psychoactive, illicit compounds.
摘要:
2022年发布的《联合国世界毒品报告》警告说,全球非法毒品市场的空间和规模正在稳步扩大。滥用物质通常是根据对人类健康和公共安全的威胁来感知的,而其使用的环境方面和随后的排放通常仍较少探索。然而,和其他人类活动一样,药物生产,贸易,药物的消费可能会留下环境印记。因此,本文旨在综述非法药物在地表水中的发生及其在鱼类中的生物累积和毒性。不同群体的非法药物,即,精神兴奋剂(甲基苯丙胺/苯丙胺,可卡因,及其代谢产物苯甲酰秋葵碱)和抑制剂(阿片类药物:吗啡,海洛因,美沙酮,芬太尼),可以通过废水排放到达水生环境,因为它们在废水处理过程中通常不会完全去除,导致它们随后以纳摩尔浓度循环,可能影响水生生物群,包括鱼。暴露于这种异源物质可以诱导氧化应激和线粒体和溶酶体功能的功能障碍,通过调节多巴胺能和谷氨酸能系统扭曲运动活动,增加捕食风险,煽动神经系统疾病,神经传递失衡,并在大脑和肝脏组织中产生组织病理学改变,与哺乳动物中描述的相似。因此,这种与药物有关的对鱼类的多维危害应根据环境保护政策进行彻底调查,以免为时已晚。同时,选定的鱼类物种(例如,DanioRerio,斑马鱼)可以用作研究精神活性物质的毒性和暴饮暴食样作用的模型,非法化合物。