Presence of pharmaceutical compounds, levels of biochemical biomarkers in seafood tissues and risk assessment for human health: Results from a case study in North-Western Spain

Abstract

This study assessed the presence of 27 pharmaceutically active compounds belonging to common therapeutic groups (cardiovascular, antiashmatic, psychoactive, diuretic, analgesic/anti-inflammatory, and antibiotic drugs) in the tissues of representative seafood species of bivalves, cephalopods, arthropods, and fish of high economic importance and consumption rates in North-Western Spain. Four pharmaceutical compounds, out of the 27 analyzed, were detected in the collected samples. The benzodiazepine citalopram was detected in the tissues of common octopus (14.1 ng g−1 dry weight) and pod razor (9.4 ng g−1 dw). The anxiolytic venlafaxine was detected in the tissues of common cockle (2.9 ng g−1 dw). The veterinary antiparasitic ronidazole was found in pod razor (2.3 ng g−1 dw) and, finally, the psychoactive compound alprazolam was also measured in common octopus (0.3 ng g−1 dw). Hazard quotients were calculated to assess the hazard posed by the consumption of the sampled seafoods. Octopus and pod razor tissues containing citalopram and alprazolam exceeded our chosen hazard limits (HQ > 0.1) for toddlers who are high consumers of seafood (HQ values between 0.18 and 0.27). A battery of biochemical biomarkers of effects (acetylcholinesterase, glutathione S-transferase; catalase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase enzymes activities and reduced/oxidized glutathione and malondialdehyde levels) was applied to samples of the study species with the aim of characterizing their basal levels and evaluating their suitability as a tool in the monitoring chronic exposure to environmental contaminants such as those analyzed in this study. According to the measured biomarkers, pod razor and cockles have the potential to be good bioindicator species, based on the observed among-site differences detected on acetylcholinesterase, glutathione S-transferase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase activities; reduced/oxidized glutathione and malondialdehyde levels.