Toxic mechanism in Daphnia magna due to phthalic acid esters and CuO nanoparticles co-exposure: The insight of physiological, microbiomic and metabolomic profiles.

Various phthalic acid esters (PAEs) such as dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) co-exist with nanopollutants in aquatic environment. In this study, Daphnia magna was exposed to nano-CuO and DBP or BBP at environmental relevant concentrations for 21-days to investigate these combined toxic effects. Acute EC50 values (48 h) of nano-CuO, DBP, and BBP were 12.572 mg/L, 8.978 mg/L, and 4.785 mg/L, respectively. Results showed that co-exposure with nano-CuO (500 µg/L) for 21 days significantly enhanced the toxicity of DBP (100 µg/L) and BBP (100 µg/L) to Daphnia magna by 18.37% and 18.11%, respectively. The activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione S-transferase were enhanced by 10.95% and 14.07%, 25.63% and 25.91%, and 39.93% and 35.01% in nano-CuO+DBP and nano-CuO+BBP treatments as compared to the individual exposure groups, verifying that antioxidative defense responses were activated. Furthermore, the co-exposure of nano-CuO and PAEs decreased the population richness and diversity microbiota, and changed the microbial community composition in Daphnia magna. Metabolomic analysis elucidated that nano-CuO + PAEs exposure induced stronger disturbance on metabolic network and molecular function, including amino acid, nucleotides, and lipid metabolism-related metabolic pathways, as comparison to PAEs single exposure treatments. In summary, the integration of physiological, microflora, and untargeted metabolomics analysis offers a fresh perspective into the potential ecological risk associated with nanopollutants and phthalate pollution in aquatic ecosystems.

Molecularly imprinted silica prepared with immiscible ionic liquid as solvent and porogen for selective recognition of testosterone.

1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([Bmim]BF(4)), an ionic liquid (IL) immiscible with water, was used as a new type of solvent and porogen for the preparation of molecularly imprinted silica. The new imprinted silica was prepared by a sacrificial spacer molecular imprinting approach with testosterone as template molecule. The new covalent monomer-template complex used in the imprinting procedure was synthesized via the reaction of 3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl isocyanate with testosterone. The imprinted silica was characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, N(2) gas adsorption-desorption isotherm and the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, the selective adsorption ability of the imprinted particles towards testosterone was investigated by the steady-state binding experiment with testosterone propionate as its structural analogue. Results showed that the imprinted silica obtained in this study had relatively homogenous structure with numerous mesopores, indicating that the IL used here is an excellent solvent and satisfactory porogen for the preparation of imprinted materials. Moreover, ILs are more environmentally friendly than traditional organic solvents due to their negligible vapor pressure. The imprinted silica possesses highly specific recognition property and high binding capacity towards testosterone, showing that the new imprinting technique is relatively successful.

Application of molecularly imprinted polymers to solid-phase extraction of analytes from real samples.

A review is presented of recent developments in the use of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) as selective materials for solid-phase extraction. Compared with traditional sorbents, MIPs can not only concentrate but also selectively separate the target analytes from real samples, which is crucial for the quantitatively determination of analytes in complex samples. Consequently, as one of the most effective sorbents, MIPs have been successfully applied to the pretreatment of analytes in foods, drugs, and biological and environmental samples in the past five years.