Coating with polysaccharides influences the surface charge of cerium oxide nanoparticles and their effects to Mytilus galloprovincialis

Effects of environmental concentrations of gadolinium on adults and juveniles of the earthworm Lumbricus terrestris

Rare earth elements (REEs), including gadolinium (Gd), are increasingly released into the environment because of their widespread use in medical imaging, electronics, and renewable energy technologies. Despite growing concerns over their accumulation in soil ecosystems, the effects of Gd on terrestrial organisms are poorly understood. To address this gap, we evaluated the toxic effects of Gd on the soil organism Lumbricus terrestris at both the adult and juvenile stages. Adult earthworms were exposed for 28 days to 1 mg/kg or 10 mg/kg Gd to assess both acute and sublethal effects, including cellular and oxidative stress, neurotoxicity, growth and reproductive performance. The offspring were exposed to 1 mg/kg of Gd for 28 days, followed by an additional 28 days of exposure to 5 mg/kg, and the same sublethal parameters were assessed. The results revealed a low accumulation of Gd in adults and a lack of acute and sublethal effects in Gd-treated worms, except for an increase in lysosomal membrane destabilization. Juveniles were more susceptible, showing increased growth and glycogen content. Upon exposure to Gd, catalase activity was inhibited, whereas acetylcholinesterase activity increased. The effects on glycogen and catalase were exacerbated in juveniles exposed to relatively high Gd concentrations. Overall, the results indicate that L. terrestris is susceptible to Gd exposure, highlighting the need for further research on its long-term effects.

Alginate and chitosan surface coating reduces the phytotoxicity of CeO2 nanoparticles to duckweed (Lemna minor L.)

Little is known about the effect of surface coatings on the fate and toxicity of CeO2 nanoparticles (NPs) to aquatic plants. In this study, we modified nCeO2 with chitosan (Cs) and alginate (Al) to obtain positively charged nCeO2@Cs and negatively charged nCeO2@Al, respectively, and exposed them to a representative aquatic plant, duckweed (Lemna minor L.). Uncoated nCeO2 could significantly inhibit the growth of duckweed, induce oxidative damage and lead to cell death, whereas nCeO2@Cs and nCeO2@Al exhibited lower toxicity to duckweed. ICP-MS analysis revealed that the Ce content in duckweed from the nCeO2 group was 1.74 and 2.85 times higher than that in the nCeO2@Cs and nCeO2@Al groups, respectively. Microscopic observations indicated that the positively charged nCeO2@Cs was more readily adsorbed on the root surface of duckweed than the negatively charged nCeO2@Al. The results of XANES and LCF demonstrated that a certain percentage of Ce(Ⅳ) was reduced to Ce(Ⅲ) after the interaction of the three NPs with duckweed, but the degree of biotransformation differed among the treatments. Specifically, the absolute contents of Ce(III) produced of nCeO2@Cs and nCeO2@Al through biotransformation were reduced by 55.5% and 83.5%, respectively, compared with that of the nCeO2 group, which might be the key factor for the diminished phytotoxicity of the coated nCeO2 to the duckweed. These findings were valuable for understanding the toxicity of metal-based NPs to aquatic plants and for the synthesis of environmentally friendly nanomaterials.

Unveiling the multilevel impact of four water-soluble polymers on Daphnia magna: From proteome to behaviour (a case study)

The ubiquitous presence of water-soluble polymers (WSPs) in freshwater environments raises concerns regarding potential threats to aquatic organisms. This study investigated, for the first time, the effects of widely used WSPs -polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), polyacrylic acid (PAA), and polyethylene glycol (PEG)- using a multi-level approach in the freshwater biological model Daphnia magna. This integrated assessment employed a suite of biomarkers, evaluation of swimming behaviour, and proteomic analysis to investigate the effects of three environmentally relevant concentrations (0.001, 0.5, and 1 mg/L) of the tested WSPs from molecular to organismal levels, assessing both acute and chronic effects. Our findings reveal that exposure to different WSPs induces specific responses at each biological level, with PEG being the only WSP inducing lethal effects at 0.5 mg/L. At the physiological level, although all WSPs impacted both swimming performance and heart rate of D. magna specimens, PAA exhibited the greatest effects on the measured behavioural parameters. Furthermore, proteomic analyses demonstrated altered protein profiles following exposure to all WSPs, with PVA emerging as the most effective.

An overview on dispersion procedures and testing methods for the ecotoxicity testing of nanomaterials in the marine environment

Considerable efforts have been devoted to develop or adapt existing guidelines and protocols, to obtain robust and reproducible results from (eco)toxicological assays on engineered nanomaterials (NMs). However, while many studies investigated adverse effects of NMs on freshwater species, less attention was posed to the marine environment, a major sink for these contaminants. This review discusses the procedures used to assess the ecotoxicity of NMs in the marine environment, focusing on the use of protocols and methods for preparing NMs dispersions and on the NMs physicochemical characterization in exposure media. To this purpose, a critical analysis of the literature since 2010 was carried out, based on the publication of the first NMs dispersion protocols. Among the 89 selected studies, only <5 % followed a standardized dispersion protocol combined with NMs characterization in ecotoxicological media, while more than half used a non-standardized dispersion method but performed NMs characterization. In the remaining studies, only partial or no information on dispersion procedures or on physicochemical characterization was provided. This literature review also highlighted that metal oxides NMs were the most studied (42 %), but with an increasing interest in last years towards nanoplastics (14 %) and multicomponent nanomaterials (MCNMs, 7 %), in line with the growing attention on these emerging contaminants. For all these NMs, primary producers as algae and bacteria were the most studied groups of marine species, in addition to mollusca, while organisms at higher trophic levels were less represented, likely due to challenges in evaluating adverse effects on more complex organisms. Thus, despite the wide use of NMs in different applications, standard dispersion protocols are not often used for ecotoxicity testing with marine species. However, the efforts to characterize NMs in ecotoxicological media recognize the importance of following conditions that are as standardized as possible to support the ecological hazard assessment of NMs.

Insights into eco-corona formation and its role in the biological effects of nanomaterials from a molecular mechanisms perspective

Broad application of nanotechnology inevitably results in the release of nanomaterials (NMs) into the aquatic environment, and the negative effects of NMs on aquatic organisms have received much attention. Notably, in the natural aquatic environment, ubiquitous ecological macromolecules (i.e., natural organic matter, extracellular polymeric substances, proteins, and metabolites) can easily adsorb onto the surfaces of NMs and form an "eco-corona". As most NMs have such an eco-corona modification, the properties of their eco-corona significantly determine the fate and ecotoxicity of NMs in the natural aquatic ecosystem. Therefore, it is of great importance to understand the role of the eco-corona to evaluate the environmental risks NMs pose. However, studies on the mechanism of eco-corona formation and its resulting nanotoxicity on aquatic organisms, especially at molecular levels, are rare. This review systemically summarizes the mechanisms of eco-corona formation by several typical ecological macromolecules. In addition, the similarities and differences in nanotoxicity between pristine and corona-coated NMs to aquatic organisms at different trophic levels were compared. Finally, recent findings about potential mechanisms on how NM coronas act on aquatic organisms are discussed, including cellular internalization, oxidative stress, and genotoxicity. The literature shows that 1) the formation of an eco-corona on NMs and its biological effect highly depend on both the composition and conformation of macromolecules; 2) both feeding behavior and body size of aquatic organisms at different trophic levels result in different responses to corona-coated NMs; 3) genotoxicity can be used as a promising biological endpoint for evaluating the role of eco-coronas in natural waters. This review provides informative insight for a better understanding of the role of eco-corona plays in the nanotoxicity of NMs to aquatic organisms which will aid the safe use of NMs.

Aquatic organisms modulate the bioreactivity of engineered nanoparticles: focus on biomolecular corona

The increased use of nanoparticle (NP)-enabled materials in everyday-life products have raised concerns about their environmental implications and safety. This motivated the extensive research in nanoecotoxicology showing the possibility that NPs could cause harm to the aquatic organisms if present at high concentrations. By contrast, studies dealing with influence that organisms could exert on the fate and thus effects of NPs are still very rare. Drawing on the existing up-to-date knowledge we critically discuss the formation of biomolecular corona as one of the mechanisms by which organisms exerted control on the NPs fate in the aquatic and biotic environments. We focused the formation of corona by exogeneous and endogenous biomolecules and illustrated the discussion with the specific example of phytoplankton and aquatic invertebrate species. We highlighted the necessity to incorporate the concept of biomolecular corona within more general framework considering the feedback of aquatic organisms and the control they exert in shaping the fate and impact of NPs in the aquatic and biological environment. In our view such broader perspective will contribute to get novel insights into the drivers of environmental transformations of NPs and their mechanisms, which are important in environmental risk assessment.