Antibiotic Chlortetracycline Causes Transgenerational Immunosuppression via NF-κB

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c07343
• Publication Date: 2022-03-14T17:23:06Z
• Authors: Wenhui Qiu; Bei Chen; Liang Tang; Chunmiao Zheng; Bentuo Xu; Zhiyu Liu; Jason T. Magnuson; Shuwen Zhang; Daniel Schlenk; Elvis Genbo Xu; Baoshan Xing
• Keywords: Immunosuppression; Chlortetracycline

The extensive and increasing global use of antibiotics results in the ubiquitous presence environment, which has made them "pseudo persistent organic contaminants." Despite numerous studies showing wide adverse effects on organisms, chronic environmental risk their exposure is unknown, molecular cellular mechanisms antibiotic toxicity remain unclear. Here, we systematically quantified transgenerational immune disturbances after parental to levels a common antibiotic, chlortetracycline (CTC), using zebrafish as model. CTC strongly reduced antibacterial activities fish offspring by immunosuppression. Both innate adaptive immunities were suppressed, significant perturbation macrophages neutrophils, expression immune-related genes, other functions. Moreover, these CTC-induced either prevented or alleviated supplementation with PDTC, an antagonist nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), uncovering seminal role NF-κB immunotoxicity. Our provide evidence that at environmentally relevant concentrations can be transmitted over multiple generations weaken defense offspring, raising concerns population hazards ecological natural environment.