|
1
|
Valenzuela A, Ballestero D, Gan C, Lorca G, Langa E, Pino-Otín MR. Hydroquinone Ecotoxicity: Unveiling Risks in Soil and River Ecosystems with Insights into Microbial Resilience. TOXICS 2024; 12:115. [PMID: 38393210 PMCID: PMC10891836 DOI: 10.3390/toxics12020115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2023] [Revised: 01/22/2024] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024]
Abstract
Despite widespread industrial use, the environmental safety of hydroquinone (HQ), a benzene compound from plants used in processes like cosmetics, remains uncertain. This study evaluated the ecotoxicological impact of HQ on soil and river environments, utilizing non-target indicator organisms from diverse trophic levels: Daphnia magna, Aliivibrio fischeri, Allium cepa, and Eisenia fetida. For a more environmentally realistic assessment, microbial communities from a river and untreated soil underwent 16S rRNA gene sequencing, with growth and changes in community-level physiological profiling assessed using Biolog EcoPlate™ assays. The water indicator D. magna exhibited the highest sensitivity to HQ (EC50 = 0.142 µg/mL), followed by A. fischeri (EC50 = 1.446 µg/mL), and A. cepa (LC50 = 7.631 µg/mL), while E. fetida showed the highest resistance (EC50 = 234 mg/Kg). Remarkably, microbial communities mitigated HQ impact in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. River microorganisms displayed minimal inhibition, except for a significant reduction in polymer metabolism at the highest concentration (100 µg/mL). Soil communities demonstrated resilience up to 100 µg/mL, beyond which there was a significant decrease in population growth and the capacity to metabolize carbohydrates and polymers. Despite microbial mitigation, HQ remains highly toxic to various trophic levels, emphasizing the necessity for environmental regulations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - María Rosa Pino-Otín
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad San Jorge, Villanueva de Gállego, 50830 Zaragoza, Spain; (A.V.); (D.B.); (C.G.); (G.L.); (E.L.)
| |
Collapse
|
|
2
|
Laguionie-Marchais C, Allcock AL, Baker BJ, Conneely EA, Dietrick SG, Kearns F, McKeever K, Young RM, Sierra CA, Soldatou S, Woodcock HL, Johnson MP. Not Drug-like, but Like Drugs: Cnidaria Natural Products. Mar Drugs 2021; 20:42. [PMID: 35049897 PMCID: PMC8779300 DOI: 10.3390/md20010042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2021] [Revised: 12/23/2021] [Accepted: 12/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Phylum Cnidaria has been an excellent source of natural products, with thousands of metabolites identified. Many of these have not been screened in bioassays. The aim of this study was to explore the potential of 5600 Cnidaria natural products (after excluding those known to derive from microbial symbionts), using a systematic approach based on chemical space, drug-likeness, predicted toxicity, and virtual screens. Previous drug-likeness measures: the rule-of-five, quantitative estimate of drug-likeness (QED), and relative drug likelihoods (RDL) are based on a relatively small number of molecular properties. We augmented this approach using reference drug and toxin data sets defined for 51 predicted molecular properties. Cnidaria natural products overlap with drugs and toxins in this chemical space, although a multivariate test suggests that there are some differences between the groups. In terms of the established drug-likeness measures, Cnidaria natural products have generally lower QED and RDL scores than drugs, with a higher prevalence of metabolites that exceed at least one rule-of-five threshold. An index of drug-likeness that includes predicted toxicity (ADMET-score), however, found that Cnidaria natural products were more favourable than drugs. A measure of the distance of individual Cnidaria natural products to the centre of the drug distribution in multivariate chemical space was related to RDL, ADMET-score, and the number of rule-of-five exceptions. This multivariate similarity measure was negatively correlated with the QED score for the same metabolite, suggesting that the different approaches capture different aspects of the drug-likeness of individual metabolites. The contrasting of different drug similarity measures can help summarise the range of drug potential in the Cnidaria natural product data set. The most favourable metabolites were around 210-265 Da, quite often sesquiterpenes, with a moderate degree of complexity. Virtual screening against cancer-relevant targets found wide evidence of affinities, with Glide scores <-7 in 19% of the Cnidaria natural products.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Claire Laguionie-Marchais
- School of Natural Sciences and Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland Galway, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland; (C.L.-M.); (A.L.A.); (E.-A.C.); (K.M.); (R.M.Y.)
| | - A. Louise Allcock
- School of Natural Sciences and Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland Galway, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland; (C.L.-M.); (A.L.A.); (E.-A.C.); (K.M.); (R.M.Y.)
| | - Bill J. Baker
- Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620-5250, USA; (B.J.B.); (S.G.D.); (F.K.); (C.A.S.); (S.S.); (H.L.W.)
| | - Ellie-Ann Conneely
- School of Natural Sciences and Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland Galway, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland; (C.L.-M.); (A.L.A.); (E.-A.C.); (K.M.); (R.M.Y.)
| | - Sarah G. Dietrick
- Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620-5250, USA; (B.J.B.); (S.G.D.); (F.K.); (C.A.S.); (S.S.); (H.L.W.)
| | - Fiona Kearns
- Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620-5250, USA; (B.J.B.); (S.G.D.); (F.K.); (C.A.S.); (S.S.); (H.L.W.)
| | - Kate McKeever
- School of Natural Sciences and Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland Galway, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland; (C.L.-M.); (A.L.A.); (E.-A.C.); (K.M.); (R.M.Y.)
| | - Ryan M. Young
- School of Natural Sciences and Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland Galway, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland; (C.L.-M.); (A.L.A.); (E.-A.C.); (K.M.); (R.M.Y.)
- School of Chemistry, National University of Ireland Galway, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland
| | - Connor A. Sierra
- Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620-5250, USA; (B.J.B.); (S.G.D.); (F.K.); (C.A.S.); (S.S.); (H.L.W.)
| | - Sylvia Soldatou
- Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620-5250, USA; (B.J.B.); (S.G.D.); (F.K.); (C.A.S.); (S.S.); (H.L.W.)
- School of Chemistry, National University of Ireland Galway, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland
| | - H. Lee Woodcock
- Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620-5250, USA; (B.J.B.); (S.G.D.); (F.K.); (C.A.S.); (S.S.); (H.L.W.)
| | - Mark P. Johnson
- School of Natural Sciences and Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland Galway, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland; (C.L.-M.); (A.L.A.); (E.-A.C.); (K.M.); (R.M.Y.)
| |
Collapse
|