The residues of anti-neoplastic drugs are new and emerging pollutants in aquatic environments. This is not only because of their increasing use, but also because due to their mechanisms of action, ...they belong to a group of particularly dangerous compounds. However, information on their ecotoxicological properties is very limited. We tested the toxicities of four anti-neoplastic drugs with different mechanisms of action (5-fluorouracil 5-FU, cisplatin CDDP, etoposide ET, and imatinib mesylate IM), and some of their binary mixtures, against two phytoplankton species: the alga Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata, and the cyanobacterium Synechococcus leopoliensis. These four drugs showed different toxic potential, and the two species examined also showed differences in their susceptibilities towards the tested drugs and their mixtures. With P. subcapitata, the most toxic of these drugs was 5-FU (EC50, 0.13 mg/L), followed by CDDP (EC50, 1.52 mg/L), IM (EC50, 2.29 mg/L), and the least toxic, ET (EC50, 30.43 mg/L). With S. leopoliensis, the most toxic was CDDP (EC50, 0.67 mg/L), followed by 5-FU (EC50, 1.20 mg/L) and IM (EC50, 5.36 mg/L), while ET was not toxic up to 351 mg/L. The toxicities of the binary mixtures tested (5-FU + CDDP, 5-FU + IM, CDDP + ET) were predicted by the concepts of 'concentration addition' and 'independent action', and are compared to the experimentally determined toxicities. The measured toxicity of 5-FU + CDDP with P. subcapitata and S. leopoliensis was higher than that predicted, while the measured toxicity of CDDP + ET with both species was lower than that predicted. The measured toxicity of 5-FU + IM with P. subcapitata was higher, and with S. leopoliensis was lower, than that predicted. These data show that these mixtures can have compound-specific and species-specific synergistic or antagonistic effects, and they suggest that single compound toxicity data are not sufficient for the prediction of the aquatic toxicities of such anticancer drug mixtures.
The residues of antineoplastic drugs are considered as new and emerging pollutants in aquatic environments. Recent experiments showed relatively high toxicity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), imatinib ...mesylate (IM), etoposide (ET) and cisplatin (CP) that are currently among most widely used antineoplastic drugs, against phytoplankton species. In this study, we investigated the toxic potential of the mixture of 5-FU + IM + ET against green alga
Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata
and cyanobacterium
Synechococcus leopoliensis,
and the stability and sorption of these drugs to algal cells. Toxic potential of the mixture was predicted by the concepts of ‘concentration addition’ and ‘independent action’ and compared to the experimentally determined toxicity. In both test species, the measured toxicity of the mixture was at effects concentrations EC
10
–EC
50
higher than the predicted, whereas at higher effect concentration (EC
90
), it was lower. In general,
P. subcapitata
was more sensitive than
S. leopoliensis
. The stability studies of the tested drugs during the experiment showed that 5-FU, IM and CP are relatively stable, whereas in the cultures exposed to ET, two transformation products with the same mass as ET but different retention time were detected. The measurements of the cell-linked concentrations of the tested compounds after 72 h exposure indicated that except for CP (1.9 % of the initial concentration), these drugs are not adsorbed or absorbed by algal cells. The results of this study showed that in alga and cyanobacteria exposure to the mixture of 5-FU + ET + IM, in particular at low effect concentration range, caused additive or synergistic effect on growth inhibition, and they suggest that single compound toxicity data are not sufficient for the proper toxicity prediction for aquatic primary producers.
