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Submitted by: iqra younas

Submitted to: Dr. Adeel

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Aquatic Toxicology

Volume 249, August 2022, 106238

Silica nanoparticles are novel aqueous additive mitigating heavy metals toxicity
and improving the health of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus
Author links open overlay panelHeba H. Mahboub a §, Khalid Shahin b §, Shereen M. Mahmoud c, Dalia
E. Altohamy d, Walaa A. Husseiny e, Doaa A. Mansour f, Shimaa I. Shalaby g, Mohamed
M.S. Gaballa h, Mohamed Shaalan i, Mohamed Alkafafy j, Afaf N. Abdel Rahman a

Abstract

Silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) are the non-toxic nanoparticles (NPs) that have magnetic power. It
is considered that SiNPs may be capable to minimize the toxic effects obtained by a mixture of
lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) in African catfish Clarias gariepinus. The in vitro magnetic power
of SiNPs to absorb Pb and Hg was analyzed. Fish (N = 240) were divided into four test groups
in triplicates for 30 days. The first group marked as control grioup and the second group (SiNPs)
was exposed to 1/10 of 96 h LC50 of SiNPs (14.45 mg/L). The third one group (HMM) was
exposed to 1/10 of 96-h LC50 of a mixture of mercury chloride (HgCl2) and lead chloride
(PbCl2) equivalent to 0.04 mg/ L and 23.1 mg/L. The fourth group (SiNPs+ HMM) was exposed
to SiNPs, HgCl2, and PbCl2  at the same concentrations as the third group. Results reveled that
fishgroup that exposed to heavy metals showed the following results; a remarkable decrease in
hematological, immunological, and antioxidants indices, down-regulation of IL-1β, IL-8, TGF-β,
NF-κβ, HSP70, and Hepcidin genes, the maximum mortality rate (48.33%), higher level of
alkaline phosphatase, alanine, and aspartate aminotransferases, urea, creatinine, and branchial
malondialdehyde, a noteable-regulation of CC chemokine and CXC chemokines, and high HMs
remainders content in muscles. Extensive pathology rvealed degeneration with diffuse
vacuolation of hepatopancreatic cells and hemorrhage in the HMM group. The exposed group to
SiNPs and HMM showed a reduction of HMs quantity in fish muscles and regulated the
previously mentioned parameters with the regeneration of histological modification of liver and
gills. Based on the study results, we point out the significance and the safety of SiNPs as a
important aqueous additive to alleviate HMs toxicity and suggest using SiNPs for increasing fish
production for maintaining aquaculture without effecting safety of human health by their little
accumulation in muscular tissue.
Introduction

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing sector that provides nutritional supplements around the
world(FAO, 2020). African catfish, Clarias gariepinus, is a popular freshwater fish that is
cultivated on large extend in Egypt due to its high growth rate and tolerating behaviour to
environmental changes. It has been used as a model for toxicological studies on a large scale
(Mahboub et al., 2021b), particularly for silica nanoparticles assessment (Abdel Rahman et al.,
2022b).

Recently, there is a growing concern about environmental and public health linked to ecological
pollution through toxic substances (Mohamed et al., 2020; Naidu et al., 2021). Toxicity with
heavy metals (HMs) is one of the dangerous risks for humans and fish in terms of toxicological
risks (Yap and Al-Mutairi, 2022). In the aquatic ecosystem, the hazard of HMs contamination
has maximize by the recent decade due to their use in industrial, agricultural, and chemical
actions which shows a high threat to aquatic life (Ustaoğlu and Islam, 2020).

The toxicity of HMs caused by bioaccumulation in fish organs casing vrious changes
(Feng et al., 2020). Lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) are the common HMs that cause significant
toxicity even by its low level for either humans or aquatic organisms (Gu et al., 2017;
Garai et al., 2021; Bella et al., 2021). Due to its more and longtime exposure, they cause serious
problems such as DNA damage, kidney failure, and neuropsychiatric disorders (Gorini et al.,
2014; Tsai et al., 2017). Pb damage immune function and tissue integrity (Guo et al., 2021). Hg
is common dangerous HMs than pb that found in contaminated water and different fish species
(Mwakalapa et al., 2019) that damage hematological and immune-antioxidant responses
(Abdel Rahman et al., 2019). Due to these reasons, monitoring pollution with HMs that badly
affects public health is warranted .

Recently, modern strategies have been used for utilizing cheap, highly effective, and
environmental-friendly substances that are not polluted for controlling HMs, including feed
additives and probiotics (El-Bouhy et al., 2021a, b) in African catfish, and nanoparticles in Nile
tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (Mahboub et al., 2021a; Alandiyjany et al., 2021). Nanoparticles
(NPs) have been contain into diverse role in fish medicine including diagnostics (Lang et al.,
2021) and therapeutics such as antimicrobial (Pimentel-Acosta et al., 2019; El-Adawy et al.,
2021; El-Houseiny et al., 2021; Elgendy et al., 2022). Along the the potential uses of many NPs
either in fish nutrition (Mahboub et al., 2020), immune stimulants (Abu-Elala et al., 2021), or in
drug delivery (Ismail et al., 2021), the risk of inducing toxicity can be a limiting factor for their
wide usage in aquaculture (Rashidian et al., 2021, 2022a; Mahboub et al., 2021b, 2022b).

Silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) are a class of NPs that are not toxic and safe to be used in
biomedical research (Akhter et al., 2022). SiNPs have magnetic properties that have recently
been applied in the treatment of contaminated water (Lin et al., 2020). Also, they have
mechanical, chemical, and thermal stability and are rich in hydroxyl groups (Singh et al., 2017).
Recent studies revealed that SiNPs can boost up the ionic exchange mechanism in aquatic
organisms, causing improvement in their health and growth (Alandiyjany et al., 2021). The
safety of SiNPs is also recorded in the food industry (Winkler et al., 2016) due to antioxidant
functions that make able their recent use in food packaging (Dong et al., 2022). In the
aquaculture industry, SiNPs have been recorded to nourish fish welfare through easing drug
administration and reducing the risk of disease outbreaks (Khosravi-Katuli et al., 2017). The
nano-form of SiNPs is beneficial to treat wastewater (Jarvie et al., 2009) and controlling
microbial load (Huang et al., 2015). Recently, the safety of SiNPs containing diets is evaluated in
Nile tilapia where digestibility, growth, and blood indices were extensively enhanced
(Bashar et al., 2021).

Section snippets

Synthesis and characterization of SiNPs

SiNPs were prepared by using the sol-gel method by following the procedure of
Martinez et al. (2006). The procedure used hydrolyzing sodium silicate (Na2Sio3) by a reaction
with sulphuric acid (H2SO4). Briefly, 10 mL of sodium silicate was taken in a 100 mL beaker,
and a concentrated solution of H2SO4 (68% vol.) was added drop by drop unless the pH of the
mixture reached 2, after that the solution was agitated for 1 h untill a thick gel was prepared. The
gel was filtered and incubated in incubater.

Characterization results of SiNPs

Morphology of SiNPs checked by TEM and AFM revealds a spherical to sub-spherical shape
homogeneous structure with acute edges. Elemental properties of the produced SiNPs by XRF,
EDX, and XRD revealds no secondary products and the amorphous nature of SiNPs. The size of
SiNPs characterized by DLS was ca. 40 nm.

Absorption of HMs by SiNPs

SiNPs exhibit significantly high adsorption of Hg2+ (p<0.0001) than Pb2+ in all the sampling
points.

Discussion

By the last decade, the nanotechnology field offers new insights into the mitigation of toxic
substances, especially contaminated water. Heavy metals are devastating toxicants that constitute
a huge ecological risk that negatively impact the health of the aquatic system and human health.
Fish are think bio-indicator of the aquatic system by which the intensity of HMs pollution can be
assessed (Sharma et al., 2021).

Conclusion
The current study pont out the capability of SiNPs as an input of nanotechnology to be applied
as a novel aqueous additive for activating adsorption of HMs and boos up blood profile,
immune-antioxidant trait, hepato-renal function, histological architecture, and immune-related
gene expression, in African catfish, C. gariepinus. Furthermore studies are warranted to test the
effect of SiNPs on other HMs and harmful microbes commonly present in the aquatic
environment.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors claim that there is no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Taif University Researchers Supporting Project number (TURSP-
2020/57), Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia for their support. The
authors also thank all staff of the Fish Diseases and Management Department, Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine, Zagazig University for their kind support during the study.

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