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Psychoactive substances (PS) have become emerging contaminants in aquatic environments, characterized by their wide distribution, high persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity. They are difficult to be completely removed in sewage treatment plants due to their high stability under different conditions. The incomplete removal of PS poses a threat to the aquatic animals and can also lead to human health problems through accumulation in the food chain. PS has become a huge burden on global health systems. Therefore, finding an effective technology to completely remove PS has become a "hot topic" for researchers. The methods for removal PS include physical techniques, chemical methods and biological approaches. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive and systematic exploration of these methods. This review aims to address this gap by providing a comprehensive overview of traditional strategies, highlighting recent advancements, and emphasizing the potential of natural aquatic plants in removing trace PS from water environments. Additionally, the degradation mechanisms that occur during the treatment process were discussed and an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses associated with each method was provided. This work would help researchers in gaining a deeper understanding of the methodologies employed and serve as a reference point for future research endeavors and promoting the sustainable and large-scale application of PS elimination., Competing Interests: 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., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Biotransformation and biodegradation of estrogenic compounds by bacteria and even fungi have been reported widely, but the role of microalgae in the elimination of estrogens from municipal wastewater treatment plants and their interaction with other microorganisms in wastewater are not clear. This study reported the feasibility of repeatedly removing a mixture of 17β-estradiol (E2) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), each was 100 μg L -1 , from primary settled municipal sewage by Selenastrum capricornutum (SC), a ubiquitous microalga, in four exposure cycles, each lasted 7 days, and how they interacted with the microbial consortium in sewage. Mixed estrogen in sewage stimulated the growth of SC, and the indigenous microorganisms in sewage also affected the microalgal growth. The indigenous microorganisms, particularly bacteria, could easily remove E2 (with 99.5% removal), so the role of SC was insignificant. On the contrary, EE2 was difficult to remove by indigenous microorganisms but the removal was significantly enhanced by SC, with almost all spiked EE2 being removed, even at the end of the fourth cycle (with 99.0% removal). These results indicated that SC, together with the indigenous microorganisms in wastewater, could be repeatedly used for simultaneous removal of E2 and EE2 from municipal sewage.

Nanoplastics (NPs) are a group of emerging environmental pollutants with potential toxicity and health risk on biosystem and ecosystem. Great efforts have been devoted to describing the uptake, distribution, accumulation, and toxicity of NPs at various aquatic organisms; however, the heterogeneous response patterns in zebrafish (Danio rerio) liver cell populations caused by NP exposure have not yet been clarified. Investigation of the heterogeneous response patterns in zebrafish liver cell populations after NPs exposure provides us significances to explore the NP cytotoxicity. In this article, the heterogeneous response patterns in zebrafish liver cell populations after polystyrene (PS)-NPs exposure were studied. Significantly increased content of malondialdehyde and decreased levels of catalase and glutathione were observed, indicating the oxidative damage of zebrafish liver induced by PS-NPs exposure. Afterwards, the liver tissues were enzymatically dissociated and used for single-cell transcriptomic (scRNA-seq) analysis. Nine cell types were identified based on unsupervised cell cluster analysis followed by their marker genes. Hepatocytes were the cell type most impacted by PS-NP exposure, and heterogeneous response patterns of male and female hepatocytes were observed. The PPAR signaling pathway was up-regulated in hepatocytes from both male and female zebrafish. Lipid metabolism-related functions were altered more notably in male-derived hepatocytes, while female-derived hepatocytes were more sensitive to estrogen stimulus and mitochondria. Macrophages and lymphocytes were also highly responsive cell types, with specific immune pathways activated to suggest immune disruption after exposure. Oxidation-reduction process and immune response were significantly altered in macrophages, and oxidation-reduction process, ATP synthesis, and DNA binding were most altered in lymphocytes. Our study not only integrates scRNA-seq with toxicology effects to identify highly sensitive and specific populations of responding cells, revealing highly specialized interactions between parenchymal and non-parenchymal cells and expanding our current understanding of PS-NPs toxicity, but also highlights the importance of cellular heterogeneity in environmental toxicology., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing financial interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The occurrence and fate of 17β-estradiol (E 2 ) in natural water have gained extensive attention owing to its high ecotoxic risk to wildlife. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a ubiquitous water constituent and contributes significantly to E 2 removal, although the reaction mechanism is rarely clarified. The present study aims to investigate E 2 transformation in water containing fresh or aged DOM surrogates at environmentally relevant concentrations in the dark. Experiments along with radical probes of benzene and furfuryl alcohol reveal that reactive radicals, particularly hydroxyl radical (·OH), formed non-photochemically at higher concentrations in aged DOM than in fresh DOM. The contribution of ·OH in E 2 removal is indicated by the decreases in the removal of radical probes in the presence of E 2 ; moreover, E 2 removal is inhibited in the presence of radical scavengers. The dose-dependent inhibitive effect of substrate concentrations, including E 2 and coexistent propylparaben, shows that the radical concentration is a limiting factor for E 2 removal, which could be enhanced by increasing DOM concentration, dissolved oxygen, and light supply. As the main byproduct, estrone (E 1 ) is persistent in the current DOM water in the dark, but it can be easily photodegraded when exposed to light. Theoretical analysis reveals that the initial step is ·OH-initiated H- abstraction on the hydroxyl group in the cyclopentane ring of E 2 . The formed singlet excited state of E 2 undergoes further intramolecular rearrangement and oxidative dehydrogenation to generate E 1 and the hydroperoxy radical (·HO 2 ). Considering the universal occurrence of E 2 in DOM-rich aquatic matrices, the present findings have special implications for the biogeochemical cycle and risk assessment of this pollutant in natural aquatic environments, particularly those beyond the photic zone., Competing Interests: 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., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Dissolved humic and biogenic substances might be present in the aphotic zone and contribute to the fate of parabens in natural aquatic ecosystem under the fluctuation of water multi-parameters. Through the combination of batch tests with quantum chemical calculation, hydroxyl radical (•OH) mediated degradation of propylparaben (PP) to methylparaben (MP) has been confirmed in the present study. The interaction of dissolved oxygen with environmental relevant concentration of humic acid (HA), algal and bacterial cell lysis leads to a slow production of •OH. Aqueous PP undergoes a mild removal process with the pseudo-first order rate constant (10 -7 , s -1 ) higher at 7.43 in HA than at 3.30-4.89 in biogenic cell lysis. PP removal is correlated with the aromaticity of DOM surrogate and the produced •OH concentration, which could be enhanced by the increase of light intensity and DO other than HA. The •OH mediated process on PP removal has been confirmed by the linearly inhibited effect of tert-butanol while totally inhibited effects of higher concentration of sodium azide and co-existent chemical (17β-estradiol). Based on the detection of byproduct MP, two possible reaction pathways, •OH attacking at β-carbon (path-β) and terminal γ-carbon (path-γ) of the propyl side chain of PP, are proposed. Through the analysis of thermal and kinetics parameters, the •OH initiated H-abstraction and the resulting C-C bond cleavage leading to the formation of MP and acetaldehyde in path-β is confirmed to be the dominant reaction mechanism. Considering the universal occurrence of parabens and these DOM surrogates, this mild removal process has special implications for the self-purification of organic pollutants in natural aquatic ecosystems, especially in DOM-rich matrices in the aphotic zone., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

In this study, a surface-coated wooden-tip electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (SCWT-ESI-MS) method was developed for rapid and sensitive analysis of trace fluoroquinolone and macrolide antibiotics in water. First, a SCWT solid-phase microextration (SPME) probe was prepared, via silanization and sulfonation for modification of a layer of adsorbent containing both C 8 -chain and sulfo group on the surface of wooden tips. Then, the SCWT-SPME probe was applied for extraction of trace fluoroquinolone and macrolide antibiotics in water. The specially designed adsorbent gave the probe desirable enrichment capacity towards fluoroquinolone and macrolide antibiotics, with enrichment factors of approximately 100-500 folds for six target analytes. After extraction, the loaded SCWT-SPME probe was directly applied for ambient MS analysis. With the application of a high voltage and some spray solvent on the SCWT-SPME probe, analytes enriched on the probe was desorbed and ionized for mass spectrometric analysis under ambient and open-air conditions. The method was sensitive, with limits of detection and quantification of 1.8-4.5 ng/L and 5.9-15.1 ng/L, respectively. The method also showed good linearity, with correlation coefficient values (r 2 ) of no less than 0.9940 for six target analytes. The developed method was successfully applied for the analysis of six fluoroquinolone and macrolide antibiotics in tap and river water samples, and no antibiotic was found in tap water but some antibiotics were detected in river water with concentrations at dozens to hundreds nanogram-per-liter level. Standard addition experiments were also performed, and the obtained recoveries were 89-102% for tap waters and 82-92% for river waters, respectively. All the experimental results demonstrated that our proposed SCWT-ESI-MS method was rapid, sensitive, and reliable for analyzing trace antibiotics in water., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Algal blooms cause great damage to water quality and aquaculture. However, this study showed that dead algal cells and chlorophyll could accelerate the photo-transformation of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a ubiquitous and persistent pollutant with potently mutagenic and carcinogenic toxicities, under visible light irradiation. Chlorophyll was found to be the major active substance in dead algal cells, and generated a high level of singlet oxygen to catalyse the photo-transformation of BaP. According to various BaP metabolites formed, the degradation mechanism was proposed as that chlorophyll in dead algal cells photo-oxidized BaP to quinones via photocatalytic generation of singlet oxygen. The results provided a good insight into the role of chlorophyll in the photo-transformation of organic contaminants and could be a possible remediation strategy of organic pollutants in natural environment.

The aquatic environment often contains different groups of contaminants, but their combined toxicity on microalgae has seldom been reported. The present study compared the toxic effects of combined mixed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals on growth and antioxidant responses of free and immobilized microalga, Selenastrum capricornutum. Five PAHs-phenanthrene, fluorene, fluoranthene, pyrene, and benzo[a]pyrene-and four heavy metals at different concentrations-0.05 to 0.1 µg Cd(2+) ml(-1) , 0.05 to 1 µg Cu(2+) ml(-1) , 0.05 to 1 µg Zn(2+) ml(-1) , and 0.5 to 2.5 µg Ni(2+) ml(-1) -were examined. Results showed that the chlorophyll a content of free and immobilized S. capricornutum was not affected by PAHs but was significantly inhibited by heavy metals. Conversely, the antioxidant parameters, including the content of reduced glutathione (GSH) and the activities of superoxide dismutase and peroxidase, were significantly induced by both PAHs and metals. For the combined toxic effects of PAHs and heavy metals, cell growth and antioxidant responses varied with exposure time and contaminants and differed between free and immobilized cells. The effects of cocontaminants on the GSH content in free cells were mainly synergistic but changed to antagonistic in immobilized cells. The toxic effects of cocontamination on free cells were also more obvious than those on immobilized cells. These findings suggest that immobilization offers some protection to microalgal cells against toxic contaminants causing differences in the interaction and responses to combined toxicants between free and immobilized cells. Immobilized cells might be more suitable for treating wastewater containing toxic contaminants than free cells., (Copyright © 2012 SETAC.)

The effects of metals (cadmium, zinc, copper and nickel in a mixture) on biosorption and biodegradation of five mixed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), namely fluorene (FLU), phenanthrene (PHE), fluoranthrene (FLA), pyrene (PYR) and benzo[a]pyrene (BAP), by Selenastrum capricornutum were investigated. Exposure to metals significantly influenced the interactions between cells and PAHs and, such impact was PAH species dependent. For low molecular weight PAHs (FLU and PHE), both metal dosage and exposure time posed a significant, positive effect on their removal, with up to 99% of FLU and 89% of PHE were removed from the medium in seven days, which was mainly due to the cellular degradation induced by metal stress. For high molecular weight PAHs (FLA, PYR and BAP), the presence of metals did not affect the removal efficiency, but the uptake in the ethyl acetate-extractable fraction of the biomass was increased., (Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A sample pretreatment method for the determination of 18 chlorophenols (CPs) in aqueous samples by derivatization liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) was investigated using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Derivatization reagent was spiked into the extraction solvent to combine derivatization and extraction into one step. High sensitivity of 18 CPs derivatives could be achieved after optimization of several parameters such as extraction solvent, percentage of derivatization reagent, extraction time, pH, and ionic strength. The results from the optimal method showed that calibration ranging from 0.5 to 500microgL(-1) could be achieved with the RSDs between 1.75% and 9.39%, and the limits of detection (LOD) are ranging from 0.01 to 0.12microgL(-1) for the CPs. Moreover, the proposed LPME method was compared with solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with on-fiber derivatization technique. The results suggested that using both methods are quite agreeable. Furthermore, the recoveries of LPME evaluated by spiked environmental samples ranged from 87.9% (3,5-DCP) to 114.7% (2,3,5,6-TeCP), and environmental water samples collected from the Pearl River were analyzed with the optimized LPME method, the concentrations of 18 CPs ranged from 0.0237microgL(-1) (3,5-DCP) to 0.3623microgL(-1) (2,3,6-TCP).