The stress metabolome provides a thorough insight into the signals and hence mechanisms of response of organisms. This is an excellent tool to advance the understanding of interactions, especially for substances like nanomaterials (NMs), for which there is an urgent need for alternative methods for hazard assessment. The metabolome of Enchytraeus crypticus was studied for the first time. The case study, CuO NM (and CuCl2) covered exposure along a time frame [0-7-14 days (d)] and two reproduction effect concentrations (EC10 and EC50). High-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry based method (HPLC-MS) was used, with reversed phase (RP) separation and mass spectrometric detection in positive and negative modes. Metabolite profiling of Cu materials yielded 155 and 382 metabolite features in positive and negative modes, respectively, showing an expression related with time, material, and ECx. The number of differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) decreased with exposure time (14 d) for CuO NM, whereas for CuCl2 EC50 it increased. Overall, almost all DEMs are down-regulated for CuO NM and up-regulated for CuCl2 (both modes). Early effects were mainly related to amino acids and later to lysophospholipids (down-regulation). Furthermore, the underlying mechanisms of CuO NM toxicity (e.g. neurotransmission, nucleic acids generation, cellular energy, and immune defense) differ from CuCl2, where later metabolomic responses are mostly linked to the metabolism of lipids and fewer to amino acids. This study reports a large scale metabolome profiling for E. crypticus and identifies potential markers of Cu materials, which can help to align intelligent testing strategies and safer-by-design materials.
Keywords: Enchytraeidae; HPLC-MS system; Non-target metabolomics; engineered nanomaterials.