ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2014
Assessing variation in the potential susceptibility of fish to pharmaceuticals, considering evolutionary differences in their physiology and ecology.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- Accounting for Differences in Plasma Protein Binding between Fish and Humans for Supporting Environmental Risk Assessment of Pharmaceuticals Using the Fish Plasma Model.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Assessment of Population Relevance of Endocrine-sensitive Apical Endpoints in Fish Chronic Studies Using Individual-Based Models.Environmental science & technology · 2025Article
- Evidence of the impacts of pharmaceuticals on aquatic animal behaviour (EIPAAB): a systematic map and open access database.Environmental evidence · 2025Article
- Effects of carbamazepine on the central nervous system of zebrafish at human therapeutic plasma levels.iScience · 2023Article
- Factors Determining the Susceptibility of Fish to Effects of Human Pharmaceuticals.Environmental science & technology · 2023Review
- Review
- Impact of Fluoxetine on Herbivorous Zooplankton and Planktivorous Fish.Environmental toxicology and chemistry · 2023Article
- Current ecotoxicity testing needs among selected U.S. federal agencies.Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP · 2022Review
- Fluoxetine results in misleading conclusions on fish behavior.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Collective Behavior in Wild Zebrafish.Zebrafish · 2020Article
- Mixed organic and inorganic tapwater exposures and potential effects in greater Chicago area, USA.The Science of the total environment · 2020Article
- Antibodies, Nanobodies, or Aptamers-Which Is Best for Deciphering the Proteomes of Non-Model Species?International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Multi-region assessment of pharmaceutical exposures and predicted effects in USA wadeable urban-gradient streams.PloS one · 2020Article
- Extended liquid chromatography high resolution mass spectrometry screening method for veterinary drug, pesticide and human pharmaceutical residues in aquaculture fish.Food additives & contaminants. Part A, Chemistry, analysis, control, exposure & risk assessment · 2019Article
- Multiple Stressors in the Environment: The Effects of Exposure to an Antidepressant (Venlafaxine) and Increased Temperature on Zebrafish Metabolism.Frontiers in physiology · 2019Article
- Reconnaissance of Mixed Organic and Inorganic Chemicals in Private and Public Supply Tapwaters at Selected Residential and Workplace Sites in the United States.Environmental science & technology · 2018Article
- Bioactive contaminants of emerging concern in National Park waters of the northern Colorado Plateau, USA.The Science of the total environment · 2018Article
- Direct and indirect effects of chemical contaminants on the behaviour, ecology and evolution of wildlife.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Review
- Defence mechanisms: the role of physiology in current and future environmental protection paradigms.Conservation physiology · 2018Article
- Determining potential adverse effects in marine fish exposed to pharmaceuticals and personal care products with the fish plasma model and whole-body tissue concentrations.Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Fish represent the planet's most diverse group of vertebrates and they can be exposed to a wide range of pharmaceuticals. For practical reasons, extrapolation of pharmaceutical effects from 'model' species to other fish species is adopted in risk assessment. Here, we critically assess this approach. First, we show that between 65% and 86% of human drug targets are evolutionarily conserved in 12 diverse fish species. Focusing on nuclear steroid hormone receptors, we further show that the sequence of the ligand binding domain that plays a key role in drug potency is highly conserved, but there is variation between species. This variation for the oestrogen receptor, however, does not obviously account for observed differences in receptor activation. Taking the synthetic oestrogen ethinyloestradiol as a test case, and using life-table-response experiments, we demonstrate significant reductions in population growth in fathead minnow and medaka, but not zebrafish, for environmentally relevant exposures. This finding contrasts with zebrafish being ranked as more ecologically susceptible, according to two independent life-history analyses. We conclude that while most drug targets are conserved in fish, evolutionary divergence in drug-target activation, physiology, behaviour and ecological life history make it difficult to predict population-level effects. This justifies the conventional use of at least a 10× assessment factor in pharmaceutical risk assessment, to account for differences in species susceptibility.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.