PR001584 (Project)

Description:Hormones correspond to one of the most important classes of PhACs and are usually classified as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), due to their ability to alter endocrine system functions, resulting in known adverse health effects on non-target organisms. Among the known EDCs, 17-a-ethinylestradiol (EE2) is characterized by high estrogenic potency, chemical stability, and a tendency to accumulate in aquatic biota. This hormone reaches the environment mainly through human and animal excretion, with conventional WWTP processes not fully managing its removal from treated effluents. Bivalves are excellent model organisms to assess the toxicity of several environmental stressors. Alongside the impacts of pollutants, organisms in coastal ecosystems are also subjected to climate change-related factors, such as temperature rise. Water temperature may increase up to 4 °C by 2100 and this is expected to severely impact several aspects of marine organisms’ biology. In addition, these environmental changes are also likely to affect the sensitivity of organisms to pollutants and, hence, pollutants toxicity. In this study, a comprehensive untargeted 1H NMR metabolomics strategy was applied to measure the metabolic impact of sea warming, in tandem with exposure to EE2, on Ruditapes philippinarum clams. The clams were exposed to different EE2 concentrations, either at 17 °C as control temperature or at 21 °C (representing a 4 °C increase, which corresponds to the worst-case warming scenario). The obtained data added important knowledge, unveiling individual metabolic effects of temperature rise and synergetic effects upon EE2 exposure, and paving the way for the definition of new metabolic markers for the monitoring of environmental stressors.