Human cell toxicogenomic analysis of bromoacetic acid: a regulated drinking water disinfection by-product

Neurodevelopmental toxicity of a ubiquitous disinfection by-product, bromoacetic acid, in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Disinfection of public drinking water and swimming pools is crucial for preventing waterborne diseases, but it can produce harmful disinfection by-products (DBPs), increasing the risk of various diseases for those frequently exposed to such environments. Bromoacetic acid (BAA) is a ubiquitous DBP, with toxicity studies primarily focused on its in vitro cytotoxicity, and insufficient research on its neurodevelopmental toxicity. Utilizing zebrafish as a model organism, this study comprehensively explored BAA's toxic effects and uncovered the molecular mechanisms through neurobehavioral analysis, in vivo two-photon imaging, transcriptomic sequencing, pharmacological intervention and molecular biological detection. Results demonstrated BAA induced significant changes on various indicators in the early development of zebrafish. Furthermore, BAA disrupted behavioral patterns in zebrafish larvae across locomotion activity, light-dark stimulation, and vibration stimulation paradigms. Subsequent investigation focused on larvae revealed BAA inhibited neuronal development, activated neuroinflammatory responses, and altered vascular morphology. Transcriptomic analysis revealed BAA-stressed zebrafish exhibited downregulation of visual transduction-related genes and activation of ferroptosis and cellular apoptosis. Neurobehavioral disorders were recovered by inhibiting ferroptosis and apoptosis. This study elucidates the neurodevelopmental toxicity associated with BAA, which is crucial for understanding health risks of DBPs and for the development of more effective detection methods and regulatory strategies.

The alternation of halobenzoquinone disinfection byproduct on toxicogenomics of DNA damage and repair in uroepithelial cells

Halobenzoquinones (HBQs) were recently discovered as an emerging class of drinking water disinfection byproducts with carcinogenic concern. However, the molecular mechanism underlying HBQs-induced DNA damage is not clear. In this study, we integrated in vitro genotoxicity, computational toxicology, and the quantitative toxicogenomic analysis of HBQs on DNA damage/repair pathways in human bladder epithelial cells SV-HUC-1. The results showed that HBQs could induce cytotoxicity with the descending order as 2,6-DIBQ > 2,6-DCBQ ≈ 2,6-DBBQ. Also, HBQs can increase DNA damage in SV-HUC-1 cells and thus generate genotoxicity. However, there is no significant difference in genotoxicity among the three HBQs. The results of molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation further confirmed that HBQs had high binding fractions and stability to DNA. Toxicogenomic analysis indicated that HBQs interfered with DNA repair pathways, mainly affecting base excision repair, nucleotide excision repair and homologous recombination repair. These results have provided new insights into the underlying molecular mechanisms of HBQs-induced DNA damage, and contributed to the understanding of the relationship between exposure to DBPs and risks of developing bladder cancer.

Additive-Enhanced Crystallization of Inorganic Perovskite Single Crystals for High-Sensitivity X-Ray Detection

Inorganic cesium lead halide perovskite single crystals are particularly intriguing to ionizing radiation detection by virtue of their material stability and high attenuation coefficients. However, the growth of high-quality inorganic perovskite single crystals remains challenging, mainly due to the limited solubility. In this work, an additive-enhanced crystallization method is proposed for cesium lead perovskites. The additive can remarkably increase the solubility of cesium bromide in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) forming a balanced stoichiometric precursor solution, which prevents the formation of impurity phases. In addition, the additives would react with DMSO generating glyoxylic acid (GLA) via nucleophilic substitution and Kornblum oxidation reactions. The GLA can form stable PbBr₂ -DMSO-GLA complexes, which enables better crystallinity, uniformity and much longer carrier lifetimes for the grown single crystals. The X-ray detectors using the additive-enhanced crystals exhibit an ultra-high sensitivity of 3.0 × 10⁴  µC Gy_air ^-1 cm^-2 which is more than two orders of magnitude higher than that for the control devices.

GFP-fused yeast cells as whole-cell biosensors for genotoxicity evaluation of nitrosamines

Nitrosamine compounds, represented by N-nitrosodimethylamine, are regarded as potentially genotoxic impurities (PGIs) due to their hazard warning structure, which has attracted great attention of pharmaceutical companies and regulatory authorities. At present, great research gaps exist in genotoxicity assessment and carcinogenicity comparison of nitrosamine compounds. In this work, a collection of GFP-fused yeast cells representing DNA damage repair pathways were used to evaluate the genotoxicity of eight nitrosamine compounds (10^-6-10⁵ μg/mL). The high-resolution expression profiles of GFP-fused protein revealed the details of the DNA damage repair of nitrosamines. Studies have shown that nitrosamine compounds can cause extensive DNA damage and activate multiple repair pathways. The evaluation criteria based on the total expression level of protein show a good correlation with the mammalian carcinogenicity data TD₅₀, and the yeast cell collection can be used as a potential reliable criterion for evaluating the carcinogenicity of compounds. The assay based on DNA damage pathway integration has high sensitivity and can be used as a supplementary method for the evaluation of trace PGIs in actual production. KEY POINTS: • The genotoxicity mechanism of nitrosamines was systematically studied. • The influence of compound structure on the efficacy of genotoxicity was explored. • GFP-fused yeast cells have the potential to evaluate impurities in production.

Global Transcriptional Analysis of Nontransformed Human Intestinal Epithelial Cells (FHs 74 Int) after Exposure to Selected Drinking Water Disinfection By-Products

BACKGROUND

Drinking water disinfection inadvertently leads to the formation of numerous disinfection by-products (DBPs), some of which are cytotoxic, mutagenic, genotoxic, teratogenic, and potential carcinogens both in vitro and in vivo.

OBJECTIVES

We investigated alterations to global gene expression (GE) in nontransformed human small intestine epithelial cells (FHs 74 Int) after exposure to six brominated and two chlorinated DBPs: bromoacetic acid (BAA), bromoacetonitrile (BAN), 2,6-dibromo-p-benzoquinone (DBBQ), bromoacetamide (BAM), tribromoacetaldehyde (TBAL), bromate (BrO3-), trichloroacetic acid (TCAA), and trichloroacetaldehyde (TCAL).

METHODS

Using whole-genome cDNA microarray technology (Illumina), we examined GE in nontransformed human cells after 4h exposure to DBPs at predetermined equipotent concentrations, identified significant changes in gene expression (p≤0.01), and investigated the relevance of these genes to specific toxicity pathways via gene and pathway enrichment analysis.

RESULTS

Genes related to activation of oxidative stress-responsive pathways exhibited fewer alterations than expected based on prior work, whereas all DBPs induced notable effects on transcription of genes related to immunity and inflammation.

DISCUSSION

Our results suggest that alterations to genes associated with immune and inflammatory pathways play an important role in the potential adverse health effects of exposure to DBPs. The interrelationship between these pathways and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) may explain the common occurrence of oxidative stress in other studies exploring DBP toxicity. Finally, transcriptional changes and shared induction of toxicity pathways observed for all DBPs caution of additive effects of mixtures and suggest further assessment of adverse health effects of mixtures is warranted. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4945.

Water Disinfection Byproducts Increase Natural Transformation Rates of Environmental DNA in Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1

The process of natural transformation allows for the stable uptake, integration, and functional expression of extracellular DNA. This mechanism of horizontal gene transfer has been widely linked to the acquisition of antibiotic resistance and virulence factors. Here, we demonstrate that bromoacetic acid (BAA)-a regulated drinking water disinfection byproduct (DBP)-can stimulate natural transformation rates in the model organism Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1. We demonstrate that transformation stimulation in response to BAA is concentration-dependent and is linked to the ability of this compound to generate DNA damage via oxidative stress. In presence of BAA, transcription of recA was upregulated 20-40% compared to the nontreated controls, indicating that this component of the DNA damage response could be associated with the increase in transformation. Other genes associated with DNA translocation across the cytoplasmic membrane (i.e., pilX, comA) did not exhibit increased transcription in the presence of BAA, indicating that the enhancement of transformation is not associated with increased translocation rates of environmental DNA. Overall, these results lead us to speculate that elevated recA transcription levels could lead to increased integration rates of foreign DNA within the recipient cell during DNA repair. Lastly, we show that an artificial DBP cocktail simulating the environmental concentrations of five water DBP classes stimulates natural transformation by almost 2-fold. The results of this study suggest that mutagens like DBPs may play an important role in enhancing the fixation rates of extracellular DNA in the environmental metagenome.

Exposure Characterization of Haloacetic Acids in Humans for Exposure and Risk Assessment Applications: An Exploratory Study

Disinfected water is the major source of haloacetic acids (HAAs) in humans, but their inter- and intra-individual variability for exposure and risk assessment applications is under-researched. Thus, we measured HAAs in cross-sectional and longitudinal urine and water specimens from 17 individuals. Five regulated HAAs-mono, di, and trichloroacetic acid (MCAA, DCAA, and TCAA) and mono- and dibromoacetic acid (MBAA and DBAA)-and one unregulated HAA-bromochloroacetic acid (BCAA)-were measured. Urinary DCAA, MBAA, DBAA, and BCAA levels were always below the limits of detection (LOD). Measured levels and interindividual variability of urinary MCAA were higher than urinary TCAA. Longitudinal urinary specimens showed MCAA levels peaked in after-shower specimens, while TCAA levels remain unchanged. Correlation between urinary MCAA and TCAA was moderate but statistically significant. The prevalence of MCAA and TCAA in urine suggest they can be considered as biomarkers of HAA. Peak urinary MCAA in post-shower specimens suggest MCAA captures short-term exposure via dermal and/or inhalation, while urinary TCAA captures long-term exposure via ingestion. However, further research is warranted in a large pool of participants to test the reliability of MCAA as exposure biomarker.

Halobenzoquinone-Induced Alteration of Gene Expression Associated with Oxidative Stress Signaling Pathways

Halobenzoquinones (HBQs) are emerging disinfection byproducts (DBPs) that effectively induce reactive oxygen species and oxidative damage in vitro. However, the impacts of HBQs on oxidative-stress-related gene expression have not been investigated. In this study, we examined alterations in the expression of 44 genes related to oxidative-stress-induced signaling pathways in human uroepithelial cells (SV-HUC-1) upon exposure to six HBQs. The results show the structure-dependent effects of HBQs on the studied gene expression. After 2 h of exposure, the expression levels of 9 to 28 genes were altered, while after 8 h of exposure, the expression levels of 29 to 31 genes were altered. Four genes ( HMOX1, NQO1, PTGS2, and TXNRD1) were significantly upregulated by all six HBQs at both exposure time points. Ingenuity pathway analysis revealed that the Nrf2 pathway was significantly responsive to HBQ exposure. Other canonical pathways responsive to HBQ exposure included GSH redox reductions, superoxide radical degradation, and xenobiotic metabolism signaling. This study has demonstrated that HBQs significantly alter the gene expression of oxidative-stress-related signaling pathways and contributes to the understanding of HBQ-DBP-associated toxicity.

Genotoxicity Assessment of Drinking Water Disinfection Byproducts by DNA Damage and Repair Pathway Profiling Analysis

Genotoxicity is considered a major concern for drinking water disinfection byproducts (DBPs). Of over 700 DBPs identified to date, only a small number has been assessed with limited information for DBP genotoxicity mechanism(s). In this study, we evaluated genotoxicity of 20 regulated and unregulated DBPs applying a quantitative toxicogenomics approach. We used GFP-fused yeast strains that examine protein expression profiling of 38 proteins indicative of all known DNA damage and repair pathways. The toxicogenomics assay detected genotoxicity potential of these DBPs that is consistent with conventional genotoxicity assays end points. Furthermore, the high-resolution, real-time pathway activation and protein expression profiling, in combination with clustering analysis, revealed molecular level details in the genotoxicity mechanisms among different DBPs and enabled classification of DBPs based on their distinct DNA damage effects and repair mechanisms. Oxidative DNA damage and base alkylation were confirmed to be the main molecular mechanisms of DBP genotoxicity. Initial exploration of QSAR modeling using moleular genotoxicity end points (PELI) suggested that genotoxicity of DBPs in this study was correlated with topological and quantum chemical descriptors. This study presents a toxicogenomics-based assay for fast and efficient mechanistic genotoxicity screening and assessment of a large number of DBPs. The results help to fill in the knowledge gap in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of DBP genotoxicity.

Monohaloacetic acid drinking water disinfection by-products inhibit follicle growth and steroidogenesis in mouse ovarian antral follicles in vitro

Water disinfection greatly reduced the incidence of waterborne diseases, but the reaction between disinfectants and natural organic matter in water leads to the formation of drinking water disinfection by-products (DBPs). DBPs have been shown to be toxic, but their effects on the ovary are not well defined. This study tested the hypothesis that monohalogenated DBPs (chloroacetic acid, CAA; bromoacetic acid, BAA; iodoacetic acid, IAA) inhibit antral follicle growth and steroidogenesis in mouse ovarian follicles. Antral follicles were isolated and cultured with either vehicle or DBPs (0.25-1.00mM of CAA; 2-15μM of BAA or IAA) for 48 and 96h. Follicle growth was measured every 24h and the media were analyzed for estradiol levels at 96h. Exposure to DBPs significantly inhibited antral follicle growth and reduced estradiol levels compared to controls. These data demonstrate that DBP exposure caused ovarian toxicity in vitro.

A Quantitative Toxicogenomics Assay for High-throughput and Mechanistic Genotoxicity Assessment and Screening of Environmental Pollutants

The ecological and health concern of mutagenicity and carcinogenicity potentially associated with an overwhelmingly large and ever-increasing number of chemicals demands for cost-effective and feasible method for genotoxicity screening and risk assessment. This study proposed a genotoxicity assay using GFP-tagged yeast reporter strains, covering 38 selected protein biomarkers indicative of all the seven known DNA damage repair pathways. The assay was applied to assess four model genotoxic chemicals, eight environmental pollutants and four negative controls across six concentrations. Quantitative molecular genotoxicity end points were derived based on dose response modeling of a newly developed integrated molecular effect quantifier, Protein Effect Level Index (PELI). The molecular genotoxicity end points were consistent with multiple conventional in vitro genotoxicity assays, as well as with in vivo carcinogenicity assay results. Further more, the proposed genotoxicity end point PELI values quantitatively correlated with both comet assay in human cell and carcinogenicity potency assay in mice, providing promising evidence for linking the molecular disturbance measurements to adverse outcomes at a biological relevant level. In addition, the high-resolution DNA damaging repair pathway alternated protein expression profiles allowed for chemical clustering and classification. This toxicogenomics-based assay presents a promising alternative for fast, efficient and mechanistic genotoxicity screening and assessment of drugs, foods, and environmental contaminants.

Comparative human cell toxicogenomic analysis of monohaloacetic acid drinking water disinfection byproducts

The monohaloacetic acids (monoHAAs), iodoacetic, bromoacetic and chloroacetic acids are toxic disinfection byproducts. In vitro toxicological end points were integrated with DNA damage and repair pathway-focused toxicogenomic analyses to evaluate monoHAA-induced alterations of gene expression in normal nontransformed human cells. When compared to concurrent control transcriptome profiles, metabolic pathways involved in the cellular responses to toxic agents were identified and provided insight into the biological mechanisms of toxicity. Using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery to analyze the gene array data, the majority of the altered transcriptome profiles were associated with genes responding to DNA damage or those regulating cell cycle or apoptosis. The major pathways involved with altered gene expression were ATM, MAPK, p53, BRCA1, BRCA2, and ATR. These latter pathways highlight the involvement of DNA repair, especially the repair of double strand DNA breaks. All of the resolved pathways are involved in human cell stress response to DNA damage and regulate different stages in cell cycle progression or apoptosis.

Mammalian cell DNA damage and repair kinetics of monohaloacetic acid drinking water disinfection by-products

Haloacetic acids (HAAs) are the second most common class of chlorinated water disinfection by-products (DBPs). The single cell gel electrophoresis genotoxicity assay using Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells was modified to include liquid holding recovery time to measure genomic DNA damage and repair kinetics of three monoHAAs: chloroacetic acid (CAA), bromoacetic acid (BAA), and iodoacetic acid (IAA). The rank order of genotoxic potency was IAA > BAA >> CAA from previous research. The concentration of each HAA was chosen to generate approximately the same level of genotoxic damage. No cytotoxicity was expressed during the 24 h liquid holding period. Nuclei from CHO cells treated with BAA showed the lowest rate of DNA repair (t(50) = 296 min) compared to that of CAA or IAA (t(50) = 134 and 84 min, respectively). The different rates of genomic repair expressed by IAA or CAA versus BAA suggest that different distributions of DNA lesions are induced. The use of DNA repair coupled with genomic technologies may lead to the understanding of the biological and genetic mechanisms involved in toxic responses induced by DBPs.