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. 2024 Aug 25:940:173453.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173453. Epub 2024 May 25.

The influence of temperature on the impacts of caffeine in mussels: Evaluating subcellular impacts and model predictions

Marta Cunha  1 , Vincenzo Petrillo  2 , Madalena Madeira  1 , Yide He  3 , Francesca Coppola  4 , Valentina Meucci  5 , Lucia De Marchi  5 , Amadeu M V M Soares  4 , Rosa Freitas  6
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Free article

The influence of temperature on the impacts of caffeine in mussels: Evaluating subcellular impacts and model predictions

Marta Cunha et al. Sci Total Environ. .
Free article

Abstract

In aquatic ecosystems, the presence of pharmaceuticals, particularly caffeine (CAF), has been linked to wastewater discharge, hospital waste, and the disposal of expired pharmaceutical products containing CAF. Additionally, rising temperatures due to climate change are anticipated in aquatic environments. This study aimed to assess the toxicity of various CAF concentrations under current (17 °C) and projected (21 °C) temperature conditions, using the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis as a bioindicator species. Subcellular impacts were evaluated following 28 days of exposure to four CAF concentrations (0.5; 1.0; 5.0; 10.0 μg/L) at the control temperature (17 °C). Only effects at an environmentally relevant CAF concentration (5.0 μg/L) were assessed at the highest temperature (21 °C). The overall biochemical response of mussels was evaluated using non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and the Integrated Biomarker Response (IBR) index, while the Independent Action (IA) model was used to compare observed and predicted responses. Results showed that at 17 °C, increased CAF concentrations were associated with higher metabolism and biotransformation capacity, accompanied by cellular damage at the highest concentration. Conversely, under warming conditions (21 °C), the induction of antioxidant enzymes was observed, although insufficient to prevent cellular damage compared to the control temperature. Regarding neurotoxicity, at 17 °C, the activity of the acetylcholinesterase enzyme was inhibited up to 5.0 μg/L; however, at 10.0 μg/L, activity increased, possibly due to CAF competition for adenosine receptors. The IA model identified a synergistic response for most parameters when CAF and warming acted together, aligning with observed results, albeit with slightly lower magnitudes.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Climate change; Independent action model; Integrated biomarker response; Marine bivalves; Stimulant drug.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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