Assessing the Health Impacts of Environmental-Relevant Concentrations of Carbamazepine in Danio rerio

• Grant number: 24/05369-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: July 31, 2024
• End date: January 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Compared Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Renata Guimarães Moreira Whitton
• Grantee: Daniel Jaen Alonso Neto
• Supervisor: Hamid Habibi
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Calgary, Canada
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/03227-8 - Evaluation of the effects of environmentally relevant concentrations of carbamazepine on the neuroendocrine regulation of Astyanax lacustris males (Teleostei: Characiformes)., BP.MS

Abstract

Wastewater treatment emerges as a pressing priority influenced by factors such as urbanization, globalization, and climate change. A central challenge identified is the limited disposal in treatment plants, contributing to ecosystem degradation through the constant discharge of micropollutants, including the Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs). These pollutants, lacking specific legislation and often improperly released, include pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, pesticides, microplastics, among other, many of which act as Endocrine Disruptors (EDCs), interfering with hormonal systems and affecting homeostasis, reproduction, and animal development. EDCs can be synthetic compounds including solvents, plastics, and pharmaceutical products, notably carbamazepine (CBZ) used in neurological diseases and known for its resistance to biodegradation. In teleosts, CBZ can bioaccumulate and affect the physiology, highlighting the need to investigate its effects on the different levels of biological organization. This project aims to continue investigating the effects of CBZ at environmentally relevant concentrations on the neuroendocrine physiology and morphological parameters of teleosts. Using mature males and females of Danio rerio, we will evaluate the effects of CBZ following in vivo exposure, on the morphology of thyroid follicles, the gene expression of pituitary tsh and gonadal genes associated with thyroid hormone receptors, aiming to analyze the responsiveness of these tissues to the thyroid hormones. We will also perform an ex vivo approach after exposure to CBZ, to evaluate the histomorphometry of testes. Comparisons between different experimental groups will be conducted using One Way ANOVA followed by Tukey's post-hoc if the data meet parametric assumptions or Kruskal-Wallis with of non-parametric data.