Biophysical and structural characterization of tetramethrin serum protein complex and its toxicological implications

Tetramethrin (TMT) is a commonly used insecticide and has a carcinogenic and neurodegenerative effect on humans. The binding mechanism and toxicological implications of TMT to human serum albumin (HSA) were examined in this study employing a combination of biophysical and computational methods indicating moderate binding affinity and potential hepato and renal toxicity. Fluorescence quenching experiments showed that TMT binds to HSA with a moderate affinity, and the binding process was spontaneous and predominantly enthalpy-driven. Circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed that TMT binding did not induce any significant conformational changes in HSA, resulting in no changes in its alpha-helix content. The binding site and modalities of TMT interactions with HSA as computed by molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations revealed that it binds to Sudlow site II of HSA via hydrophobic interactions through its dimethylcyclopropane carboxylate methyl propanyl group. The structural dynamics of TMT induce proper fit into the binding site creating increased and stabilizing interactions. Additionally, molecular mechanics-Poisson Boltzmann surface area calculations also indicated that non-polar and van der Waals were found to be the major contributors to the high binding free energy of the complex. Quantum mechanics (QM) revealed the conformational energies of the binding confirmation and the degree of deviation from the global minimum energy conformation of TMT. The results of this study provide a comprehensive understanding of the binding mechanism of TMT with HSA, which is important for evaluating the toxicity of this insecticide in humans.

Pyrethroid-induced oxidative stress and biochemical changes in the primary mussel cell cultures

Pyrethroids are among the most widely used insecticides. Permethrin and tetramethrin, which are synthetic pyrethroids, are generally used to control insects in agricultural areas and household applications. Due to broad use areas, they contaminate aquatic ecosystems and cause adverse effects to the non-target aquatic organisms. Even though permethrin and tetramethrin are known to alter the oxidative stress parameters of in vivo aquatic animal model organisms, there are limited studies in vitro. This study aims to determine the adverse effects of permethrin and tetramethrin in the in vitro models of freshwater mussels exposed to 1 mg/L, 10 μg/L, 100 ng/L and 1 ng/L concentrations of chemicals for 24 h. For this purpose, reduced glutathione activities were evaluated as biomarkers of the primary gill and digestive gland cell cultures. In both cell cultures, reduced glutathione values increased in the exposed groups, compared to the control group. Even though the results showed that reduced glutathione activities had not significantly changed concentration-dependently (p > 0.05), significant differences were observed in the reduced glutathione activities of both cell cultures (p < 0.05). This study showed that permethrin and tetramethrin had highly toxic effects in the in vitro models of mussels even at low concentrations.

Novel Mechanism and Kinetics of Tetramethrin Degradation Using an Indigenous Gordonia cholesterolivorans A16

Tetramethrin is a pyrethroid insecticide that is commonly used worldwide. The toxicity of this insecticide into the living system is an important concern. In this study, a novel tetramethrin-degrading bacterial strain named A16 was isolated from the activated sludge and identified as Gordonia cholesterolivorans. Strain A16 exhibited superior tetramethrin degradation activity, and utilized tetramethrin as the sole carbon source for growth in a mineral salt medium (MSM). High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis revealed that the A16 strain was able to completely degrade 25 mg·L⁻¹ of tetramethrin after 9 days of incubation. Strain A16 effectively degraded tetramethrin at temperature 20–40 °C, pH 5–9, and initial tetramethrin 25–800 mg·L⁻¹. The maximum specific degradation rate (q_max), half-saturation constant (K_s), and inhibition constant (K_i) were determined to be 0.4561 day⁻¹, 7.3 mg·L⁻¹, and 75.2 mg·L⁻¹, respectively. The Box–Behnken design was used to optimize degradation conditions, and maximum degradation was observed at pH 8.5 and a temperature of 38 °C. Five intermediate metabolites were identified after analyzing the degradation products through gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), which suggested that tetramethrin could be degraded first by cleavage of its carboxylester bond, followed by degradation of the five-carbon ring and its subsequent metabolism. This is the first report of a metabolic pathway of tetramethrin in a microorganism. Furthermore, bioaugmentation of tetramethrin-contaminated soils (50 mg·kg⁻¹) with strain A16 (1.0 × 10⁷ cells g⁻¹ of soil) significantly accelerated the degradation rate of tetramethrin, and 74.1% and 82.9% of tetramethrin was removed from sterile and non-sterile soils within 11 days, respectively. The strain A16 was also capable of efficiently degrading a broad spectrum of synthetic pyrethroids including D-cyphenothrin, chlorempenthrin, prallethrin, and allethrin, with a degradation efficiency of 68.3%, 60.7%, 91.6%, and 94.7%, respectively, after being cultured under the same conditions for 11 days. The results of the present study confirmed the bioremediation potential of strain A16 from a contaminated environment.

Stereoselective Analysis of Chiral Pyrethroid Insecticides Tetramethrin and α-Cypermethrin in Fruits, Vegetables, and Cereals

This manuscript presents an effective and robust method for simultaneous stereoselective determination of two pyrethroid insecticides, tetramethrin and α-cypermethrin in different food products by high-performance liquid chromatography. Enantioseparation was carried out using reversed-phase chromatography, and the influences of four polysaccharide-based chiral columns, mobile phase composition, and column temperature on retention were fully investigated. Satisfactory separation was obtained on Chiralpak IG column using acetonitrile-water (75:25, v/v) under isocratic conditions. To extract and purify the target analytes from food matrices, matrix solid-phase dispersion was employed with C₁₈ as dispersant and primary secondary amine as well as graphitized carbon black as cleanup sorbents. Response surface method based on Box-Behnken design was implemented to assist optimization of the extraction variables. Then, method validation was done in real samples including specificity, linearity, sensitivity, trueness, precision, as well as stability, and its analytical performance fulfills the criteria recommended by the European Union SANTE/11945/2015, demonstrating its applicability in studying the stereochemistry of chiral tetramethrin and α-cypermethrin in food products.