A Review of the Effects of Pharmaceuticals on Marine Invertebrates Volume 48- Issue 5

Marwa Ibrahim Saad El-Din*

• Assistant Lecturer of Invertebrates and Insects, Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

Received: February 08, 2023;   Published: February 27, 2023

*Corresponding author: Marwa Ibrahim Saad El-Din, Assistant Lecturer of Invertebrates and Insects, Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2023.48.007727

Abstract PDF

Pharmaceutical contamination can cause a variety of changes, from behavioural changes to population or ecosystem-level changes, as well as biochemical changes at the cellular level. Aquatic invertebrates are being exposed to pharmaceuticals from wastewater. Both human and animal health depend on pharmaceuticals. When their residues reach freshwater systems, they are, however, increasingly recognised as a pollutant that poses a threat to both the environment and human health. Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are thought to be utilised in quantities of several hundred thousand tonnes yearly. Global drug consumption is anticipated to exceed 4.5 trillion doses, totaling 1.4 trillion USD, by 2020. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (such as diclofenac, naproxen, and ibuprofen), cardiological medications (such as beta-blockers, diuretics, calcium channel blockers, and lipidregulating agents), antibiotics, oral contraceptives, anti-depressants, immunosuppressive medications, and cytostatics are among the drugs that are used the most frequently.

The growth of aquatic organisms on various organisational levels, such as cyanobacteria, algae, zooplankton, (Sarma, et al. [1,2]), or macroinvertebrates (Bringolf, et al. [3,4]), can be affected by pharmaceutical pollution. However, the most severe impacts have been observed for fish, some of which have been discovered to occur at ecologically relevant API doses and have included endocrine effects, developmental modifications, and behavioural changes, depending on the pharmacological group (Brodin, et al. [5]). Surface and groundwater, including drinking water sources, most frequently include these types of APIs, at varied amounts (Boxall, et al. [6]). Unless there is a spill, it is also unlikely that medications will have acute impacts on aquatic creatures. However, it is uncertain, challenging to forecast, and requiring substantial interdisciplinary and multifaceted research what the long-term ecological effects of pharmaceutical pollution will be [7].

Monitoring Pharmaceutical in Aquatic Ecosystems

Traditional wastewater treatment facilities primarily use the activated sludge process for biological degradation, but modern facilities use tertiary treatment processes such reverse osmosis, ozonation, and sophisticated oxidation technologies. Chemicals used in pharmaceuticals are a varied category with a range of physical and chemical properties [8]. The physical and chemical features (such as hydrophobicity), their responsiveness to various treatment procedures, and process control factors like temperature, solids retention time, and hydraulic retention time all affect how effective a treatment is. Because most medications tend to be hydrophobic, they are less efficiently removed through sorption to sludge [9]. As a result, the effectiveness of treatment removal may vary greatly among treatment institutions or over different time periods within the same treatment facility [9]. Chlorination and ozonation, whose effectiveness relies on the chemical composition of the item being treated as well as the pH and oxidant dose, can provide higher clearance rates (Adams, et al. [10,11]).

Factor Affecting Aquatic Invertebrates’ Bioconcentration and Absorption of Pharmaceutical

The absorption and bioconcentration of pharmaceuticals on aquatic invertebrates are influenced by a variety of environmental, chemical, and biological variables and processes.

1. Environmental elements (climate, temperature, rainfall, season, water quality, PH, dissolved oxygen, hardness, organic matter).

2. Chemical components (chemical form, shape, size, hydrophobicity, and bioavailability).

3. Biological elements (growth, life stage, metabolic processes, behavior, and disease).

Pharmaceutical Sources and Aquatic Environments

APIs are known to come from a variety of sources, including:

a) Hospital sewage.

b) Domestic wastewater because active or unmodified metabolites are primarily excreted in urine [12].

c) As conventional wastewater treatment facilities cannot entirely remove excreted drugs, the effluent must be 3-treated [13].

d) Pharmaceutical manufacturing effluents.

e) If treated sewage sludge is being sprayed, runoff from farmland [14].

f) Excretion by cattle as a result of the widespread use of veterinary medications (such as antibiotics and growth promoters) in contemporary farming.

g) Aquaculture wastewater because more drugs, especially antibiotics (such as tetracyclines, sulfonamides, chloramphenicol, and ampicillin), are being used to treat and prevent fish infections (Bôto, et al. [15]).

How can Aquatic Invertebrates Protect Themselves from Poisons and Drugs?

In a contaminated aquatic environment, invertebrates’ external physicochemical barriers serve as the first line of defense against parasite, disease, and toxin invasion. The invertebrates’ external physicochemical defenses include their shells, tunics, tests, cuticles, carapaces, and pinacoderms, among others. The principal defense against diseases and poisons entering mollusks is a hard, calcareous shell or valves. However, in molluscs without shells, a thick exterior cuticular layer called a mantle or pallium is thought to serve a vital physiological function in preventing the entry of toxins and pathogens. The protective layer provided by mucus keeps poisons from coming into touch with the epithelia directly. According to reports, invertebrates use mucus secretion as a key detoxifying and evasion mechanism. The organism’s secreted mucus traps pathogens, resulting in elimination. The calcareous shell, which is composed of calcium carbonate and mucus, is regarded as an exterior physiochemical barrier and is crucial to aquatic invertebrates’ immunological defence. In crustaceans, the carapace, an exterior physiochemical barrier, serves as the first line of defence. Potential hazards to the invertebrate include corrosive poisons including mineral acids, alkalis, insecticides, and detergents. It encourages the migration of parasites and harmful bacteria into the viscera of the target invertebrates. A crab’s waxy-coated cuticle acts as a mechanical barrier to prevent parasite invasion. By preserving tissue architecture, avoiding opportunistic pathogen invasion, and preventing the deadly loss of haemolymph from the body, this chitinous exoskeleton or cuticle aids in the process of wound healing [16,17].

Scientists discovered that pharmaceutical production facilities can contribute significantly to the environmental release of medicines. Pharmaceuticals are not just present in water from manufacturing sites. You are probably aware of the use of antibiotics and medicines in the livestock industry, and USGS investigations have found drugs such acetaminophen, caffeine, cotinine, diphenhydramine, and carbamazepine in streams receiving runoff from animal-feeding operations. Another source of pharmaceuticals in stream water is both of us. In essence, not all pharmaceuticals taken internally by the body are entirely digested, and the excess ends up in the wastewater that leaves our homes and enters sewage-treatment facilities. Many enterprises do not routinely remove medicines from water, which may seem surprising given that these prescriptions might be discovered in streams kilometres distant from wastewater-treatment plants.

Data on medications in aquatic environments are particularly missing in a number of categories (notably Africa, South America and small island nations in Oceania). Collaboration between well-funded organisations in wealthy countries that have access to necessary tools and tested analytical techniques and local scientists in developing countries may be able to quickly bridge these data gaps while also providing useful scientific and technical training. The majority of the information that is currently available on drug concentrations in marine life relates to antibiotics used in aquaculture. However, nothing is known about the prevalence of other drug classes, their metabolites, and transformation products in marine animals. More research is required to identify the most appropriate analytical methods in order for risk assessments of fish and shellfish to be precise and take into account potentially irreversible pharmaceutical metabolite conjugates.

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