Occurrence and Environmental Risks of Organic Pollutants in Aquatic Environment

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Ecotoxicology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2024) | Viewed by 2436

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
Interests: ecotoxicology; environmental chemistry; risk assessment
Institute of Environmental Pollution and Health, College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Interests: PPCP; emerging environmental endocrine disruptors; bisphenol compounds; screening of typical environmental endocrine disruptors in water environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Interests: water pollution; environmental pollution and control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the industrialization and urbanization, a large number of organic pollutants are discharged into the water environment, posing potential risks to both the water ecosystem and human health. There are significant differences in their environmental behaviors and the potential risks of different types of pollutants. To assess the environment risks of these organic pollutants well, we first need to evaluate their occurrence, migration, and transformation behaviors in different environmental matrices. Nevertheless, numerous organic pollutants have been detected in aquatic environments; only a few of them are toxicologically evaluated, and different types of organic pollutants exhibit different molecular mechanisms of toxic effects. Hence, it is necessary to study the toxicity of more organic pollutants to humans and organisms and any associated molecular mechanisms. Furthermore, for some organic pollutants, they can easily accumulate in aquatic organisms due to their persistence and refractory properties, thereby complicating their toxicological mechanisms. Hence, a better understanding of the effects of organic pollutants in the water environment is required to provide comprehensive information and to support environmental managers in making decisions.

For this Special Issue, we seek manuscripts that will contribute to our knowledge of the occurrence and environmental risks of organic pollutants in the aquatic environment. Papers may include—but are not limited to—the toxicological effects and mechanisms of organic pollutants, the bioavailability and bioaccumulation of typical pollutants (such as organometals and organic pollutants) in aquatic ecosystems, ecological risk assessments and human health impact evaluations on organic pollutants, distribution, and the migration and transformation behaviors of organic pollutants.

Authors are invited to submit original research papers, reviews, and short communications. We would also welcome the submission of commentaries, reviews, and meta-analyses.

Dr. Chenglian Feng
Dr. Bingli Lei
Dr. Weiying Feng
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • organic pollutants
  • aquatic environment
  • risk assessment
  • toxicology
  • migration and transformation behaviors
  • toxic effects
  • environmental exposure

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 6507 KiB  
Article
DEHP-Induced Glioblastoma in Zebrafish Is Associated with Circadian Dysregulation of PER3
by Shuhui Men, Jiayun Xu, Zhanhong Yang and Zhenguang Yan
Toxics 2024, 12(12), 835; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12120835 - 21 Nov 2024
Abstract
DEHP is a plasticizer that is widely found in our water environment and poses a significant risk to the environment and human health. Long-term exposure to DEHP can cause endocrine disruption and interfere with the organism’s normal functioning. In order to explore the [...] Read more.
DEHP is a plasticizer that is widely found in our water environment and poses a significant risk to the environment and human health. Long-term exposure to DEHP can cause endocrine disruption and interfere with the organism’s normal functioning. In order to explore the potential effects of DEHP on the development of biological brain tissues, this study used bioinformatics analysis to confirm the diagnostic and prognostic value of PER3 in gliomas and further validated the neurotoxicity of DEHP using methods such as behavioral experiments and molecular biology in zebrafish. The experimental findings revealed that the expression level of PER3 in diseased tissues was significantly lower than that in the control group. In addition, the expression level of PER3 was significantly correlated with immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoint genes, and oncogenes. Moreover, the ROC curve analysis showed that PER3 could accurately differentiate between GBM tissues and adjacent normal tissues. To further validate the neurotoxicity of DEHP, we analyzed the effects of DEHP exposure on zebrafish development and PER3 expression by behavioral experiments and molecular biology. The results showed that exposure to DEHP substantially altered both the behavioral responses and the gene expression profiles within the brain tissues of zebrafish. PCR results indicate that the expression of circadian rhythm factor PER3 was significantly reduced in the brains of zebrafish in the exposed group, and circadian dysregulation had a certain promoting effect on the development of glioma. The aim of this work was to investigate the potential effects of DEHP contamination in a water environment on organism brain development. It was demonstrated that PER3 is an effective early diagnostic marker, which is of great significance in the diagnosis and clinical prognosis of glioma, and that DEHP exposure can lead to a significant reduction in PER3 expression in zebrafish brain tissue. This study further proved that DEHP has a potential carcinogenic effect, which adds scientific evidence to the carcinogenicity study of DEHP. Full article

Review

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16 pages, 3077 KiB  
Review
Progress and Prospects of Microplastic Biodegradation Processes and Mechanisms: A Bibliometric Analysis
by Yingnan Cao, Jing Bian, Yunping Han, Jianguo Liu, Yuping Ma, Weiying Feng, Yuxin Deng and Yaojiang Yu
Toxics 2024, 12(7), 463; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12070463 - 26 Jun 2024
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Abstract
In order to visualize the content and development patterns of microplastic biodegradation research, the American Chemical Society (ACS), Elsevier, Springer Link, and American Society for Microbiology (ASM) were searched for the years 2012–2022 using Citespace and VOSvivewer for bibliometrics and visual analysis. The [...] Read more.
In order to visualize the content and development patterns of microplastic biodegradation research, the American Chemical Society (ACS), Elsevier, Springer Link, and American Society for Microbiology (ASM) were searched for the years 2012–2022 using Citespace and VOSvivewer for bibliometrics and visual analysis. The biodegradation processes and mechanisms of microplastics were reviewed on this basis. The results showed a sharp increase in the number of publications between 2012 and 2022, peaking in 2020–2021, with 62 more publications than the previous decade. The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), Northwest A&F University (NWAFU), and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) are the top three research institutions in this field. Researchers are mainly located in China, The United States of America (USA), and India. Furthermore, the research in this field is primarily concerned with the screening of functional microorganisms, the determination of functional enzymes, and the analysis of microplastic biodegradation processes and mechanisms. These studies have revealed that the existing functional microorganisms for microplastic biodegradation are bacteria, predominantly Proteobacteria and Firmicutes; fungi, mainly Ascomycota; and some intestinal microorganisms. The main enzymes secreted in the process are hydrolase, oxidative, and depolymerization enzymes. Microorganisms degrade microplastics through the processes of colonization, biofilm retention, and bioenzymatic degradation. These studies have elucidated the current status of and problems in the microbial degradation of microplastics, and provide a direction for further research on the degradation process and molecular mechanism of functional microorganisms. Full article
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