Protective effects of 5-aminolevulinic acid against toxicity induced by alpha-cypermethrin to the liver-gut-microbiota axis in zebrafish

Yi Cheng; Jie Zhang; Fei Gao; Yong Xu; Chengju Wang

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113422

Protective effects of 5-aminolevulinic acid against toxicity induced by alpha-cypermethrin to the liver-gut-microbiota axis in zebrafish

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2022 Apr 1:234:113422. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113422. Epub 2022 Mar 16.

Authors

Yi Cheng¹, Jie Zhang², Fei Gao³, Yong Xu⁴, Chengju Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Innovation Center of Pesticide Research, Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China. Electronic address: chengyi58918@163.com.
² Innovation Center of Pesticide Research, Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China. Electronic address: catherin@cau.edu.cn.
³ Innovation Center of Pesticide Research, Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China. Electronic address: 867705147@qq.com.
⁴ Innovation Center of Pesticide Research, Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China. Electronic address: cauxy@cau.edu.cn.
⁵ Innovation Center of Pesticide Research, Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China. Electronic address: wangchengju@cau.edu.cn.

PMID: 35305352
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113422

Abstract

To explore whether and how 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) can relieve the toxicity to the liver-gut-microbiota axis caused by alpha-cypermethrin (α-CP), adult zebrafish were exposed to α-CP (1.0 µg L^-1) with or without 5.0 mg L^-1 ALA supplementation. In the present work, the calculated LC₅₀ of α-CP+ALA was 1.15 μg L^-1, increasing about 1.16-fold compared with that of α-CP group (0.99 μg L^-1), which indicated that ALA can alleviate the toxicity of α-CP. ALA also alleviated the histopathological lesions in the liver and gut induced by α-CP. Transcriptome sequencing of the liver showed that ALA rescues the differential expression of genes involved in the oxidation-reduction, heme metabolism, and complement activation pathways associated with dysfunctions induced by α-CP, and these findings were verified by RT-qPCR analysis and detection of the activities of enzymes in the liver-gut axis. The gut microbiota 16S rRNA sequencing results showed that α-CP alone induced gut microbial dysbiosis, which was efficiently antagonized by ALA due to decreasing the relative abundances of Cetobacterium and 3 major pathogens, and increasing the relative abundances of beneficial genera. Taken together, the results indicate that ALA might be a promising candidate for attenuating the adverse effects caused by pesticide-induced environmental pollution.

Keywords: 5-aminolevulinic acid; Alpha-cypermethrin; Gut microbiota; Toxicity alleviation; Transcriptome.