Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs manufacturing facility effluent induced teratogenesis and oxidative stress in Xenopus laevis

Abstract

Pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities are mainly concentrated in the center of the country, and the amount of waste generated by manufacturing processes is vast and diverse, including pharmaceutical compounds, organic solvents, detergents, degradation products, heterocyclic compounds, reactive intermediates, and chlorinated products. Unfortunately, many of these facilities lack adequate wastewater treatment plants, allowing residual compounds to reach water bodies and interact with non-target organisms, resulting in adverse effects. This work aimed to evaluate the toxicity of a pharmaceutical effluent. For this purpose, we performed the Frog Embryo Teratogenesis Assay-Xenopus (FETAX) assay and exposed Xenopus laevis embryos to six proportions of a pharmaceutical industry effluent (0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 1.5%). The median lethal concentration (LC₅₀), median effective malformation concentration (EC₅₀), minimum growth inhibitory concentration (MCIG), and teratogenic index (TI) were then calculated, and oxidative damage and antioxidant enzyme activity were evaluated. As the teratogenic index value for this effluent was 2.60, it could be considered a hazard, and the minimum growth inhibitory concentration was 0.1 %. Several malformations were observed, the most common being axial malformations (tail, notochord, and fin), cardiac edema, cerebral edema, and microcephaly. Hydroperoxides, lipid peroxidation, and protein carbonylation increased after effluent exposure, as did superoxide dismutase and catalase activities.