2. Academic Validation
  3. Identify organic contaminants of high-concern based on non-targeted toxicity testing and non-targeted LC-HRMS analysis in tap water and source water along the Yangtze River

Identify organic contaminants of high-concern based on non-targeted toxicity testing and non-targeted LC-HRMS analysis in tap water and source water along the Yangtze River

  • Water Res. 2024 Apr 1:253:121303. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121303.
Shaoqing Zhang 1,  Liben Chou 1,  Wenxuan Zhu 2,  Wenrui Luo 1,  Chi Zhang 1,  Jingfan Qiu 3,  Meishuang Li 1,  Haoyue Tan 1,  Jing Guo 1,  Chang Wang 4,  Keng Tu 1,  Kefan Xu 1,  Hongxia Yu 1,  Xiaowei Zhang 1,  Wei Shi 5,  Qing Zhou 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
  • 2 Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN 55105, USA.
  • 3 Key Laboratory of Pathogen Biology of Jiangsu Province, Department of Pathogen Biology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China.
  • 4 Hubei Key Laboratory of Environmental and Health Effects of Persistent Toxic Substances, Institute of Environment and Health, Jianghan University, Wuhan 430056, China.
  • 5 State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China; Jiangsu Province Ecology and Environment Protection Key Laboratory of Chemical Safety and Health Risk, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 6 State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 38382288 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121303
Abstract

Many organic pollutants were detected in tap water (TW) and source water (SW) along the Yangtze River. However, the potential toxic effects and the high-concern organics (HCOs) which drive the effect are still unknown. Here, a non-targeted toxicity testing method based on the concentration-dependent transcriptome and non-targeted LC-HRMS analysis combining tiered filtering were used to reveal the overall biological effects and chemical information. Subsequently, we developed a qualitative pathway-structure relationship (QPSR) model to effectively match the biological and chemical information and successfully identified HCOs in TW and SW along the Yangtze River by potential substructures of HCOs. Non-targeted toxicity testing found that the biological potency of both TW and SW was stronger in the downstream of the Yangtze River, and disruption of the endocrine system and Cancer were the main drivers of the effect. In addition, non-targeted LC-HRMS analysis combined with retention time prediction results identified 3220 and 631 high-confidence compound structures in positive and negative ion modes, respectively. Then, QPSR model was further implied and identified a total of 103 HCOs, containing 35 industrial chemicals, 30 PPCPs, 26 pesticides, and 12 Hormones in TW and SW, respectively. Among them, the neuroactive and hormonal compounds oxoamide, 8-iso-16-cyclohexyl-tetranor prostaglandin E2, E Keppra, and Tocris-0788 showed the highest frequency of detection, which were identified in more than 1/3 of the samples. The strategy of combining non-targeted toxicity testing and non-targeted LC-HRMS analysis will support comprehensive biological effect assessment, identification of HCOs, and risk control of mixtures.

Keywords

Concentration-dependent transcriptome; High-concern organics; Non-targeted analysis; Qualitative pathway-structure relationship; Source water; Tap water.

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