Toxicity of copper oxide nanoparticles in the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis: A redox proteomic investigation

Developmental effects of two different copper oxide nanomaterials in sea urchin (Lytechinus pictus) embryos

“…There were no statistically significant differences in the amount of copper accumulated in embryos exposed to 50 ppb of CuSO 4 , 2000 ppb of synthesized nano-CuO, and 1900 ppb and 19 000 ppb of commercial nano-CuO (5.3 ± 1.1, 7.9 ± 0.8, 6.3 ± 1.5 and 11.9 ± 3.4 ng of copper/mg wet weight, respectively, Figure 6A). Although protein oxidation has been used as an oxidative stress indicator (Shacter, 2000), and has been reported in mussels (Hu et al, 2014) and in sea urchin embryos (Wu et al, 2015) exposed to nano-CuO, we did not observe such protein oxidation in any of the treatments (Supplementary Figure S2). In contrast, there was a significant decrease in TAOC in embryos exposed to 2000 ppb of synthesized nano-CuO (74 ± 1.9% of control), and was even lower in embryos exposed to 19 000 ppb of commercial nano-CuO (57 ± 2.1% of control, Figure 6B).…”

“…Oxidative stress damage to proteins has been reported as an important toxic effect of NM exposure (Hu et al, 2014;Kovacic & Somanathan, 2010). In this study, no significant differences in protein oxidation were observed following copper exposure (Supplementary Figure S2).…”

“…Significant differences in the TAOC were observed only at high concentrations of both nanoCuO ( Figure 6B), indicating a ''nano'' effect occurred with respect to TAOC. Copper and copper oxide NMs are known to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), altering the expression of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase (Gomes et al, 2011;Hu et al, 2014;Triboulet et al, 2013;Wu et al, 2015). At high concentrations of nano-CuO, the concentration of ROS may exceed the antioxidant capacity.…”

“…Some of these NMs may be released from antifouling paint matrices into the aquatic environment, where they can exert their toxic effects in non-target organisms (Rawat et al, 2010). Previous toxicological studies of copper oxide nanomaterial (nano-CuO) in marine and estuarine organisms show that the NMs can accumulate in the tissue and cause oxidative stress, inhibit enzymatic activity, affect embryonic development and defense mechanisms at low concentrations, and at high doses, can cause mortality (Gomes et al, 2011;Hanna et al, 2014;Hanna et al, 2013;Hu et al, 2014;Wu et al, 2015). We selected the sea urchin as our model system for studying the potential impact of nano-CuO in coastal environments, focusing on the most sensitive developmental stages (Hamdoun & Epel, 2007).…”

Nanotoxicology of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles

“…The effects were not explained by soluble metal impurities [77]. CuO nanoparticles induced dose-dependent toxic effects at the biochemical, physiological and tissue levels in the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) [78].…”