The antidepressant venlafaxine may act as a neurodevelopmental toxicant in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis)

Flavie Bidel (1) , Carole Di Poi (1) , Hélène Budzinski (2) , Patrick Pardon (2) , William Callewaert (1) , Adeline Arini (3) , Niladri Basu (3) , Ludovic Dickel (1) , Cécile Bellanger (1) , Christelle Jozet-Alves (1)

1 GMPc - Groupe Mémoire et Plasticité comportementale
2 EPOC - Environnements et Paléoenvironnements OCéaniques
3 McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]

The Serotonin/Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor (SNRI) antidepressant venlafaxine (VEN, Effexor (R)) has become one of the most common antidepressants detected in North American and European streams. Mammalian research has established that VEN exposure is associated with a range of structural, neurochemical, and functional alterations of the brain in adults and newborns. However, the neurodevelopmental effects of VEN on non-target organisms have never been investigated. The aim of our research was to decrease this gap in knowledge by characterizing the effects of VEN exposure on a cephalopod mollusk, the common cuttlefish Sepia officinalis. This species inhabits VEN-contaminated waters and possesses an unusually sophisticated brain. These characteristics render it a unique invertebrate species for studying the neurodevelopmental effects of VEN. Cuttlefish were exposed to environmentally-relevant concentrations of VEN (Measured concentrations approximate to 5 and 100 ng L-1) or to filtered natural seawater (control) in a closed-loop system with regular water changes during the first 20 days after hatching. We evaluated brain maturation as well as neurochemical changes and behavioral performances during this critical period of development. Our results show that both VEN-exposed groups exhibited a decrease in norepinephrine levels, along with a reduction in the relative number of glutamate NMDA-like receptors binding sites in the group exposed to 5 ng L-1 of VEN after 20 days of exposure. Brain regional changes in cellular proliferation were observed in VEN-exposed groups in the vertical lobe (i.e. a key structure involved in cognitive processes) and in the optic lobes (i.e. main visual processing centers) in the absence of significant change in their volume. Along with these neurodevelopmental changes, 20 days of exposure to 100 ng L-1 of VEN was associated with a decrease in camouflage ability. Overall, our study suggests that VEN is a neurodevelopmental toxicant in non-target aquatic organisms at environmentally-relevant concentrations. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mots clés: adult neurogenesis; Brain maturation; camouflage; Cell proliferation; Cephalopods; environmentally relevant concentrations; fluoxetine prozac; hippocampal neurogenesis; Inhibitor (SNRI); mercury exposure; monoamine-oxidase activity; Monoamines; nervous-system; norepinephrine transporters; pimephales-promelas; Serotonin/Norepinephrine Reuptake; transporter binding profile

Domaines: Neurosciences; Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Zoologie des invertébrés

Flavie Bidel, Carole Di Poi, Hélène Budzinski, Patrick Pardon, William Callewaert, et al.. The antidepressant venlafaxine may act as a neurodevelopmental toxicant in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). NeuroToxicology, 2016, 55, pp.142--153. ⟨10.1016/j.neuro.2016.05.023⟩. ⟨hal-01472650⟩