Psychoactive Plant Database - Neuroactive Phytochemical Collection

1. J Hazard Mater. 2024 Oct 16;480:136190. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136190. 
Online ahead of print.

Distribution characteristics and relationship of microplastics, phthalate 
esters, and bisphenol A in the Beiyun River basin of Beijing.

Yang N(1), Zhang Y(1), Yang N(2), Men C(3), Zuo J(4).

Author information:
(1)State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, 
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
(2)State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, 
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; State Key 
Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Simulation and Safety, Tianjin University, 
Tianjin 300350, China.
(3)State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, 
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; School of 
Energy and Environmental Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of 
Resource-Oriented Treatment of Industrialpollutants, University of Science and 
Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
(4)State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, 
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Shenzhen 
International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China. 
Electronic address: jiane.zuo@tsinghua.edu.cn.

Urban rivers are closely related to human life, and due to the widespread use of 
plastic products, rivers have become important carriers of pollutants such as 
microplastics (MP), phthalate esters (PAEs), and bisphenol A (BPA). However, our 
understanding of the distribution characteristics and relationships of MP, PAEs, 
and BPA in rivers is limited. In this study, MP, six PAEs and BPA were detected 
in the water and sediments of the Beiyun River basin. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) 
was the most abundant type of microplastic, while di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate 
(DEHP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) were the most abundant PAEs. MP, PAEs, and 
BPA in both water and sediment showed positive correlations, with stronger 
correlations and higher pollution levels in sediment than in water. The tendency 
for PAE congeners to partition into sediments increased with a higher 
octanol-water partition coefficient (Kow). There was a significant positive 
correlation between the distribution tendency of ∑6PAEs and TOC in sediments 
with a pearson correlation coefficient of 0.717. Rivers with more frequent human 
activities and higher levels of urbanization in the vicinity had a higher 
abundance of various pollutants and a greater diversity of MP types.

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136190
PMID: 39490169

Conflict of interest statement: 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.


2. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Oct 21:2024.06.19.599745. doi: 
10.1101/2024.06.19.599745.

Olfactory combinatorial coding supports risk-reward decision making in C. 
elegans.

Saad MZH, Ryan V WG, Edwards CA, Szymanski BN, Marri AR, Jerow LG, McCullumsmith 
R, Bamber BA.

Olfactory-driven behaviors are essential for animal survival, but mechanisms for 
decoding olfactory inputs remain poorly understood. We have used whole-network 
Ca ++ imaging to study olfactory coding in Caenorhabditis elegans. We show that 
the odorant 1-octanol is encoded combinatorially in the periphery as both an 
attractant and a repellant. These inputs are integrated centrally, and their 
relative strengths determine the sensitivity and valence of the behavioral 
response through modulation of locomotory reversals and speed. The balance of 
these pathways also dictates the activity of the locomotory command 
interneurons, which control locomotory reversals. This balance serves as a 
regulatory node for response modulation, allowing C. elegans to weigh 
opportunities and hazards in its environment when formulating behavioral 
responses. Thus, an odorant can be encoded simultaneously as inputs of opposite 
valence, focusing attention on the integration of these inputs in determining 
perception, response, and plasticity.

DOI: 10.1101/2024.06.19.599745
PMCID: PMC11526860
PMID: 39484578


3. Environ Health (Wash). 2024 Jun 14;2(10):712-720. doi: 
10.1021/envhealth.4c00053. eCollection 2024 Oct 18.

Differences in Toxicokinetics and Maternal Transfer between Lipophilic and 
Proteinophilic Halogenated Organic Pollutants in Laying Hens.

Luo XJ(1)(2), Feng QJ(1)(3), Zhu CH(1)(3), Chen X(1)(3), Chen PP(1)(3), Zeng 
YH(1)(2), Mai BX(1)(2).

Author information:
(1)State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry and Guangdong Key Laboratory of 
Environmental Resources Utilization and Protection, Guangzhou Institute of 
Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China.
(2)Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Environmental Pollution and 
Control, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 
Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China.
(3)University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China.

In this study, we conducted exposure experiments on egg-laying hens to explore 
the toxicokinetics and maternal transfer characteristics of lipophilic and 
proteinophilic halogenated organic pollutants (HOPs). The lipophilic HOPs 
included polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers 
(PBDEs), and dechlorane plus (DPs), while the proteinophilic HOPs included 
perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs). The results revealed that most of lipophilic 
HOPs exhibit lower depuration rate (k d) than PFCAs. The k d of lipophilic HOPs 
correlated with the octanol-water partition coefficient (log K OW) values in a 
V-shaped curve, whereas that of PFCAs correlated with the protein-water 
partition coefficient (log K PW) values in an inverted V-shaped curve. The 
depuration rate, rather than the uptake rate, was a leading factor in 
determining the bioaccumulation potential of HOPs in hens. Although the dominant 
factors determining the tissue distribution of the two types of compounds were 
explicit (fats vs phospholipids), chemical-specific tissue distribution was 
still observed. The egg-maternal concentration ratio was dependent on the 
exposure status, concentration, and maternal tissue choice. Using a single 
maternal tissue may not be an appropriate method for assessing chemical maternal 
transfer potential. PFCAs have a greater maternal transfer potential (>80% of 
the total body burden) than lipophilic HOPs (approximately 30% for BDE209 and 
DPs, and less than 10% for the others). Their lipophilic and partly 
proteinophilic nature makes the toxicokinetics and maternal transfer 
characteristics of BDE209 and DPs different from those of other lipophilic HOPs. 
These findings are crucial for enhancing our understanding of the behavior and 
fate of HOPs in egg-laying hens.

© 2024 The Authors. Co-published by Research Center for Eco-Environmental 
Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and American Chemical Society.

DOI: 10.1021/envhealth.4c00053
PMCID: PMC11503964
PMID: 39474435

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no competing financial 
interest.


4. Sci Total Environ. 2024 Oct 27:177217. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177217. 
Online ahead of print.

Emerging organic compounds in surface and groundwater reflect the urban dynamics 
in sub-Saharan cities.

Djieugoue B(1), Nlend B(2), Ngo Boum-Nkot S(2), Celle H(3), Nasr WB(4), Vystavna 
Y(5), Re V(6), Zouari K(4), Trabelsi R(4), Etame J(2), Huneau F(7).

Author information:
(1)Université de Douala, Faculté des Sciences, Douala, P.O. BOX 24157, Cameroon; 
National Engineering School of Sfax, Laboratory of Radio-Analyses and 
Environment, BP1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia.
(2)Université de Douala, Faculté des Sciences, Douala, P.O. BOX 24157, Cameroon.
(3)Université de Franche-Comté, CNRS UMR 6249 Chrono-Environnement, 16 route de 
Gray, 25030 Besançon, France.
(4)National Engineering School of Sfax, Laboratory of Radio-Analyses and 
Environment, BP1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia.
(5)International Atomic Energy Agency, Isotope Hydrology Section, 1400 Vienna, 
Austria.
(6)University of Pisa, Department of Earth Sciences, Via Santa Maria 53, 56126 
Pisa, Italy.
(7)Université de Corse Pascal Paoli, Département d'Hydrogéologie, Campus 
Grimaldi, BP52, 20250 Corte, France; CNRS, UMR 6134 SPE, BP52, 20250 Corte, 
France. Electronic address: huneau@univ-corse.fr.

Rapid and uncontrolled urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa has led to an 
increased production and expansion of synthetic chemicals, resulting in 
significant pollution of the aquatic environments, particularly by Emerging 
Organic Contaminants (EOCs). Due to the low income of the population in this 
region, there is often a lack of control over water and fishery resources prior 
to consumption. Therefore, the current study aims to use EOCs as markers of 
water resource quality degradation, and to assess the potential environmental 
risk of these compounds on some aquatic organisms. Among 120 targeted compounds, 
66 were detected at 22 sites in Douala city, Cameroon, including 9 rivers and 13 
groundwater samples. The detected EOCs were classified into three categories, 
including pharmaceuticals and personal care products (n = 55), lifestyle 
compounds (n = 7) and industrial compounds (n = 4). Surface water was highly 
impacted, with EOC total concentrations reaching 61,273 ng/L, versus 16,677 ng/L 
in groundwater. Contamination levels and the type of contaminants were closely 
linked to land use patterns in the study area. Contamination was mainly 
attributed to domestic, hospital and brewery's industry wastewaters, landfill 
and pit latrines. Consumption patterns and physicochemical properties of 
compounds, in particular their persistence, polarity and octanol/water gradient 
(Kow), explain their occurrence at high concentrations (up to μg/L) in 
groundwater. According to Risk Quotient (RQ) with a maximum of 93.4 in surface 
water and 8.5 in groundwater, about 1/3 of the identified compounds pose a 
serious threat to aquatic organisms, including algae, invertebrates and fish. 
For the first time in Central African, we revealed these high levels of water 
contamination by EOCs and identified the risk for the environmental health. Our 
study demonstrates the urgency to adopt sustainable water management strategies 
in large cities of the region.

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177217
PMID: 39471949


5. Chem Sci. 2024 Oct 24. doi: 10.1039/d4sc04313h. Online ahead of print.

A cocktail of Cu(2+)- and Zn(2+)-peptoid-based chelators can stop ROS formation 
for Alzheimer's disease therapy.

Behar AE(1), Maayan G(1).

Author information:
(1)Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 
Technion City 3200008 Haifa Israel gm92@technion.ac.il.

The formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the brain is a major cause of 
neuropathologic degradation associated with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). It has 
been suggested that the copper (Cu)-amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide complex can lead to 
ROS formation in the brain. An external chelator for Cu that can extract Cu from 
the CuAβ complex should inhibit the formation of ROS, making Cu chelation an 
excellent therapeutic approach for AD. Such a chelator should possess high 
selectivity for Cu over zinc (Zn), which is also present within the synaptic 
cleft. However, such selectivity is generally hard to achieve in one molecule 
due to the similarities in the binding preferences of these two metal ions. As 
an alternative to monotherapy (where Cu extraction is performed using a single 
chelator), herein we describe a variation of combination therapy - a novel 
cocktail approach, which is based on the co-administration of two structurally 
different peptidomimetic chelators, aiming to target both Cu2+ and Zn2+ ions 
simultaneously but independently from each other. Based on rigorous 
spectroscopic experiments, we demonstrate that our peptidomimetic cocktail 
allows, for the first time, the complete and immediate inhibition of ROS 
production by the CuAβ complex in the presence of Zn2+. In addition, we further 
demonstrate the high stability of the cocktail under simulated physiological 
conditions and its resistance to proteolytic degradation by trypsin and report 
the water/n-octanol partition coefficient, initially assessing the blood-brain 
barrier (BBB) permeability potential of the chelators.

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.

DOI: 10.1039/d4sc04313h
PMCID: PMC11503657
PMID: 39464602

Conflict of interest statement: There are no conflicts to declare.