Effects of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) on fish body and scale shape in natural waters

Adam Staszny; Peter Dobosy; Gabor Maasz; Zoltan Szalai; Gergely Jakab; Zsolt Pirger; Jozsef Szeberenyi; Eva Molnar; Lilianna Olimpia Pap; Vera Juhasz; Andras Weiperth; Bela Urbanyi; Attila Csaba Kondor; Arpad Ferincz

doi:10.7717/peerj.10642

Effects of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) on fish body and scale shape in natural waters

PeerJ. 2021 Feb 11:9:e10642. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10642. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Adam Staszny¹, Peter Dobosy², Gabor Maasz^{3

4}, Zoltan Szalai^{5

6}, Gergely Jakab^{5

6

7}, Zsolt Pirger³, Jozsef Szeberenyi⁵, Eva Molnar³, Lilianna Olimpia Pap¹, Vera Juhasz¹, Andras Weiperth¹, Bela Urbanyi⁸, Attila Csaba Kondor⁵, Arpad Ferincz¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Freshwater Fish Ecology, Institute of Aquaculture and Environmental Safety, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Gödöllő, Hungary.
² Danube Research Institute, MTA-Centre for Ecological Research, Budapest, Hungary.
³ Balaton Limnological Institute, MTA-Centre for Ecological Research, Tihany, Hungary.
⁴ Soós Ernő Research and Development Center, University of Pannonia, Nagykanizsa, Hungary.
⁵ Geographical Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, MTA Centre for Excellence, Budapest, Hungary.
⁶ Department of Environmental and Landscape Geography, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
⁷ Institute of Geography and Geoinformatics, University of Miskolc, Miskolc, Hungary.
⁸ Institute of Aquaculture and Environmental Safety, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Gödöllő, Hungary.

Abstract

Background: In recent years, there are growing concerns about pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in natural ecosystems. These compounds have been found in natural waters and in fish tissues worldwide. Regarding their growing distribution and abundance, it is becoming clear that traditionally used risk assessment methodologies and ecotoxicological studies have limitations in several respects. In our study a new, combined approach of environmental impact assesment of PhACs has been used.

Methods: In this study, the constant watercourses of the suburban region of the Hungarian capital (Budapest) were sampled, and the body shape and scale shape of three fish species (roach Rutilus rutilus, chub Squalius cephalus, gibel carp Carassius gibelio) found in these waters were analyzed, based on landmark-based geometric morphometric methods. Possible connections were made between the differences in body shape and scale shape, and abiotic environmental variables (local- and landscape-scale) and measured PhACs.

Results: Significant connections were found between shape and PhACs concentrations in several cases. Despite the relatively large number of compounds (54) detected, citalopram, propranolol, codeine and trimetazidine significantly affected only fish body and scale shape, based on their concentrations. These four PhACs were shown to be high (citalopram), medium (propranolol and codeine), and low (trimetazidine) risk levels during the environmental risk assessment, which were based on Risk Quotient calculation. Furthermore, seven PhACs (diclofenac, Estrone (E1), tramadol, caffeine 17α-Ethinylestradiol (EE2), 17α-Estradiol (aE2), Estriol (E3)) were also categorized with a high risk level. However, our morphological studies indicated that only citalopram was found to affect fish phenotype amongst the PhACs posing high risk. Therefore, our results revealed that the output of (traditional) environmental/ecological risk assessment based on ecotoxicological data of different aquatic organisms not necessarily show consistency with a "real-life" situation; furthermore, the morphological investigations may also be a good sub-lethal endpoint in ecotoxicological assessments.

Keywords: Chub; Gibel carp; Landmark-based geometric morphometrics; Roach; Shape analysis.

Grants and funding

The research was financed by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) from the NRDI Fund, Hungary. Identification number: NVKP_16-1-2016-0003. Adam Staszny and Gabor Maasz was supported by the Bolyai Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (BO/00407/17/4 Adam Staszny, BO/000549/20/7 Gabor Maasz) and the (ÚNKP-19-4 Adam Staszny, ÚNKP-20-5 Gabor Maasz) New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology, Hungary. The publication is supported by the EFOP-3.6.3-VEKOP-16-2017-00008 project. Arpad Ferincz, Vera Juhasz and Bela Urbanyi has been supported by the NKFIH-831-10/2019 and the TKP2020-NKA projects. The chemical analysis of PhACs and the environmental risk assesment was supported by the National Brain Project, Hungary (No. 2017-1.2.1-NKP-2017-00002). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.