More information: raquelmoreira@usp.br, with Raquel Aparecida Moreira
*Intern under the supervision of Moisés Dorado
English version: Nexus Traduções
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Award-winning researcher will assess the impact of drugs on fish behavior
Raquel Moreira is one of the winners of the award for Women in Science; scientist believes that antidepressants and anxiolytics will alter the behavior of aquatic species
USP researcher is one of the winners in the Life Sciences category of L’Oréal Paris’; For Women in Science program, in partnership with Unesco and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences – Photomontage Jornal da USP with images from rawpixel.com/Freepik, upklyak/Freepik, xvector/Freepik and vectorpounch/Freepik
Fluoxetine, citalopram, diazepam, and lorazepam are some main antidepressants and anxiolytics used to treat psychiatric disorders. Although their effects on human health are well known, the side effects of the presence of these psychoactive drugs in aquatic ecosystems are not known for sure. Whether through improper disposal or excretion, pharmaceutical compounds that are not retained in treatment centers follow the path of water, reaching streams, lakes, and seas.
In addition to the danger of species extinction, antidepressants and anxiolytics can cause environmental disturbances with consequences for the behavior, development, and reproduction of aquatic animals. Increased consumption of these drugs exposes aquatic biota to constant contamination, though small – in the order of nanograms (ng/L) and micrograms (μg/L).
Raquel Moreira, a biologist from the Federal University of Ouro Preto (Ufop) and professor of Ecology and Zoology at USP's Faculty of Zootechnics and Food Engineering (FZEA) in Pirassununga, points out that contaminants of emerging concern, such as pharmaceuticals, are still not properly treated in Brazil’s wastewater treatment plants.
“Species suffer this chronic exposure, where they may not even be affected in terms of survival, but so many other parameters of their life cycle can be compromised: the search for food, escape from predators, growth, respiration, reproduction, the viability of offspring, of the subsequent generation. We can even assess their ability to escape to uncontaminated habitats,” explains Raquel. The researcher was one of the winners in the Life Sciences category of L’Oréal Paris’ For Women in Science program, in partnership with Unesco and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
Since 2006, the program has awarded an annual Grant Fellowship to young Brazilian doctors with scientific projects of high merit, to be developed over 12 months in national institutions. Raquel was selected with the project The environmental side effects of well-being drugs: when antidepressants and anxiolytics disturb animal behavior.
Born in Manhuaçu, Minas Gerais, this is Raquel’s fourth time running for the award. Receiving the grant will allow her to start the research activities, collaborating with researchers from all backgrounds at USP’s Laboratory for Ecotoxicology and Applied Ecology (Leatox), which she coordinates. The general goal will be to investigate human impacts on aquatic ecosystems. In this case, the side effects of psychoactive drugs on three freshwater species: Daphnia magna, a microcrustacean of the Cladocera order widely used in research to determine toxicity; Hyalella meinerti, an amphipod that lives in sediments of rivers and dams; and Danio rerio, the zebrafish, considered a model bioindicator of the ecological state of water.
Hyalella meinerti is a species of amphipod commonly found in Brazil and belonging to the genus Hyalella, successfully used in toxicological studies – image taken from Késsia Marçal De Lorena’s thesis (Environmental Engineering course at USP’s School of Engineering of São Carlos)
A female specimen of the zebrafish Danio rerio species with fan tails – Wikimedia Commons / Azul
Female Daphnia magna with a brood of asexual eggs – Dieter Ebert, Basel, Switzerland
Fight or flight?
Specializing in ecological risk assessment, Raquel did a post-doctorate internship at the Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia, Spain, where she perfected the technique known as the Heterogeneous Multi-Habitat Assay System (HeMHAS), which she intends to use in her research project selected for the L’Oréal award.
The approach considered new in the area of ecotoxicology, consists of creating an unforced exposure system, simulating a wider and more connected environment than confinement. The technique makes it possible to assess the escape behavior of animals exposed to contamination, verifying their distribution in more or less toxic spaces. The main hypothesis of the research is that not all contaminated environments will be avoided, indicating a possible side effect of “well-being” provided by psychoactive drugs.
The behavior of animals after exposure has yet to be verified and may alter their swimming patterns, social interactions, and chemical perception of the environment, leading to population decline or spatial escape.
“The behavior of animal populations, both vertebrate and invertebrate, could be altered; however, there is the issue of greater vulnerability, especially regarding possible post-exposure dependence. This is what we assess, especially whether fish exposed to these compounds create some kind of dependency. Another parameter that will be assessed is the choice of habitat contaminated at different levels by these compounds, whether the animals prefer to stay, and why. Will the animals’ swimming activity and social behavior with other species be improved or will they prefer to stay away? So all of these issues will be assessed,” says the researcher.
Despite the survival expectancy of fish and crustaceans, Raquel considers the aquatic environment to be a dynamic and complex ecosystem, with the effects of contamination still unknown on other species that make up the aquatic biota. “There are the primary producers, the algae, the macrophytes, the detritivores, the fungi, the bacteria… it’s a world of its own where we don’t know how it might be interfering.”
Animal and social vulnerability
Raquel was inspired by the work carried out by Luis Schiesari, a biologist and professor at USP’s Faculty of Humanities (EACH), who assessed patterns of contamination by antidepressants in the waters of 53 streams in the Alto Tietê Basin. The paper Population size, income, and poor sanitation interact to explain the widespread contamination of stream water by antidepressants in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo has not yet been peer-reviewed.
For the researcher, the work is important because it has been able to measure the concentration of contaminants and show that the occurrence was higher in peripheral and socially vulnerable regions.
“Based on these concentrations in which the environmental characterization has already been done, we're going to see what the effects are on the biota. This was precisely a possibility of continuing studies raised by this professor, and we hadn't even talked about it! This is science, each of us contributing to extending this history of environmental pollution by pharmaceuticals, which is still very much neglected."
From inspiration to execution, Raquel’s work must be based on collaboration and the concept of one health, in which animal, human, and environmental well being cannot be separated. The researcher explained to Jornal da USP that all the waste resulting from the experiments would be treated by a specialized company. The chemical analyses will be carried out in partnership with Professor Cassiana Montagner, from the Environmental Chemistry Laboratory at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). The experiments in the non-forced exposure system will be carried out in partnership with Professor Evaldo Espíndola, from the Ecotoxicology and Applied Ecology Laboratory at USP’s School of Engineering of São Carlos (EESC).
Raquel is also part of a Fapesp thematic project investigating the effects of plastic pollution combined with pesticide pollution on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. To do this, they create “mesocosms”, which are small artificial ponds in 2,000-liter water tanks containing real elements of the life present in the ponds.
The technique may also be used in the project with anxiolytics and antidepressants, providing information on how prolonged chronic exposure can affect not only the distribution of animals in space but also changes in the environmental conditions of the entire area adjacent to the contamination.
The researcher recalls that only outcomes such as the death of species and population decline are considered to create or amend of regulations. However, she hopes to present consistent data to recommend improvements in water treatment plants.
“Our purpose in doing research is to build knowledge, but also to contribute to public policies on emerging compounds, which are those for which there is still no national legislation on maximum occurrence; there is no treatment and they are not retained in wastewater treatment plants. These are future actions that can be triggered as soon as the environmental effects of the presence of contaminants in aquatic ecosystems are identified,” she says.
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A reprodução de matérias e fotografias é livre mediante a citação do Jornal da USP e do autor. No caso dos arquivos de áudio, deverão constar dos créditos a Rádio USP e, em sendo explicitados, os autores. Para uso de arquivos de vídeo, esses créditos deverão mencionar a TV USP e, caso estejam explicitados, os autores. Fotos devem ser creditadas como USP Imagens e o nome do fotógrafo.