Effects of environmentally relevant concentrations of pharmaceutical compounds on gene expression in the Gilthead Seabream, Sparus Aurata

Abstract

Trabajo presentado en el XVI Seminario Ibérico de Química Marina, celebrado en Cádiz del 24 al 26 de enero de 2012.The growing use of pharmaceuticals has become now a new environmental problem which potentially will become dangerous in the future. Due to their high consumption, pharmaceuticals are continuously introduced to sewage waters (excreta, disposal of unused or expired drugs or directly pharmaceutical discharges). As a result, they are found in surface, ground and drinking waters. Non target organisms exposed to these levels of pharmaceuticals may not be affected in survival, but suffer other sublethal effects as a consequence of long term exposure. Individuals of the gilthead seabream, Sparus aurata, were exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of three representative pharmaceutical compounds, the anti-convulsant drug Carbamazepine (CA), the #12;-blocker Atenolol (AT) and the analgesic Acetaminophen (AC) and susceptible genes were examined for altered expression by means of quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR). The study revealed differential, treatment dependent expression of selected target genes showing that environmentally relevant concentrations of these drugs may alter expression patterns compared to nonexposure conditions.Peer Reviewe