Cocktail effects of emerging contaminants on zebrafish: Nanoplastics and the pharmaceutical diphenhydramine

Nanoplastics (NPLs) became ubiquitous in the environment, from the air we breathe to the food we eat. One of the main concerns about the NPLs risks is their role as carrier of other environmental contaminants, potentially increasing their uptake, bioaccumulation and toxicity to the organisms. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to understand how the presence of polystyrene NPLs (∅ 44 nm) will influence the toxicity (synergism, additivity or antagonism) of the antihistamine diphenhydramine (DPH), towards zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos, when in dual mixtures. After 96 hours (h) exposure, at the organismal level, NPLs (0.015 or 1.5 mg/L) + DPH (10 mg/L) induced embryo mortality (90%) and malformations (100%) and decreased hatching (80%) and heartbeat rates (60%). After 120 h exposure, NPLs (0.015 or 1.5 mg/L) + DPH (0.01 mg/L) decreased larvae swimming distance (30–40%). At the biochemical level, increased glutathione S-transferases (55–122%) and cholinesterase (182–343%) activities were found after 96 h exposure to NPLs (0.015 or 1.5 mg/L) + DPH (0.01 mg/L). However, catalase (CAT) activity remained similar to the control group in the mixtures, inhibiting the effects detected after the exposure to 1.5 mg/L NPLs alone (increased 230% of CAT activity). In general, the effects of dual combination – NPLs + DPH (even at concentrations as low as 10 μg/L of DPH) – were more harmful than the correspondent individual exposures, showing the synergistic interactions of the dual mixture and answering to the main question of this work. The obtained results, namely the altered toxicity patterns of NPLs + DPH compared with the individual exposures, show the importance of an environmental risk assessment considering NPLs as a co-contaminant due to the potential NPLs role as vector for other contaminants.