Health Risks of Chronic Exposure to Small Doses of Microcystins: An Integrative Metabolomic and Biochemical Study of Human Serum

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c00973
• Publication Date: 2022-05-05T07:04:31Z
• Authors: Jun He; Jun Chen; Feng Chen; Liang Chen; John P. Giesy; Yuming Guo; Gaodao Liang; Xuwei Deng; Wenjing Wang; Ping Xie
• Keywords: Tolerable daily intake; Metabolic pathway

Health risks of chronic exposure to microcystins (MCs), a family aquatic contaminants produced mainly by cyanobacteria, are critical yet unsolved problems. Despite few epidemiological studies, the metabolic profiles humans exposed MCs remain unknown, hindering deep understanding molecular toxicity mechanisms. Here, sensitive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)- and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based metabolomics were applied investigate serum living near Lake Chao, where toxic cyanobacterial blooms occur annually. positively detected in 92 144 sera ultra-high-pressure chromatography-tandem mass (UPLC-MS/MS) with median concentration 0.016 μg/L. The estimated daily intake (0.15-0.27 μg MC-LReq/day) was less than tolerable (TDI, 2.4 MC-LR for 60 kg adults) recommended World Organization (WHO). Obvious disruptions amino acid metabolism confirmed played important roles renal impairments associated MC burdens. Chronic oral mice 30 MC-LR/kg body mass, which is no observed adverse effect level, also led obvious lesions dysfunction. These observations provide first evidence disturbance indicate that WHO's TDI value determined traditionally should be lessened protect human health effectively.