New evidence for neurobehavioral toxicity of deltamethrin at environmentally relevant levels in zebrafish.

Lei Lei, Biran Zhu, Kun Qiao, Yuxi Zhou, Xiangping Chen, Jun Men, Lihua Yang, Qidong Wang, Jian Han, Bingsheng Zhou

The Science of the total environment 2022 May 20

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Deltamethrin, a widely used type II pyrethroid insecticide, was reported with neurotoxicity to aquatic organisms, such as fish. However, the effects and potential mechanisms on the central nervous system remain largely unknown, especially under environmental concentrations. Therefore, we exposed adult female zebrafish to environmentally relevant levels of deltamethrin (30, 100, and 333 ng/L) for 21 days to assess neurobehavioral changes related to the central nervous system and explore the modes of action. Behavioral assays revealed significant increases in the swimming speeds, residence time near other fish and the shoaling cohesion in exposed fish. Transcriptomic results enriched the disrupted neural functions involving the glutamatergic and dopaminergic synapses in the brain. The qRT-PCR confirmed the upregulation of the factors for promoting the glutamate release. The measurement of neurotransmitters showed significantly increased content of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate in the brain. Taken together, deltamethrin exposure increased the glutamate level and promoted the release of such an excitatory neurotransmitter between the glutamatergic synapses in the brain, which eventually led to hyperactivity of social behaviors in adult zebrafish. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Citation

Lei Lei, Biran Zhu, Kun Qiao, Yuxi Zhou, Xiangping Chen, Jun Men, Lihua Yang, Qidong Wang, Jian Han, Bingsheng Zhou. New evidence for neurobehavioral toxicity of deltamethrin at environmentally relevant levels in zebrafish. The Science of the total environment. 2022 May 20;822:153623