Urban and hospital-sourced pharmaceuticals are continuously discharged into aquatic environments, threatening biota. To date, their impact as single compounds has been widely investigated, whereas few information exists on their effects as mixtures. We assessed the time-dependent biological impact induced by environmental concentrations of caffeine alone (CAF; 5 ng/L to 10 µg/L) and its combination with salicylic acid (CAF+SA; 5 ng/L+0.05 µg/L to 10 µg/L+100 µg/L) on gills of mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis during a 12-day exposure. Although no histological alteration was observed in mussel gills, haemocyte infiltration was noticed at T12 following CAF+SA exposure, as confirmed by flow cytometry with increased hyalinocytes. Both the treatments induced lipid peroxidation and cholinergic neurotoxicity, which the antioxidant system was unable to counteract. We have highlighted the biological risks posed by pharmaceuticals on biota under environmental scenarios, contributing to the enhancement of ecopharmacovigilance programmes and amelioration of the efficacy of wastewater treatment plants.

来自城市和医院的药物不断排放到水生环境中，威胁着生物群。迄今为止，它们作为单一化合物的影响已被广泛研究，而关于它们作为混合物的影响的信息很少。我们评估了单独环境浓度的咖啡因（CAF；5 ng/L 至 10 µg/L）及其与水杨酸（CAF+SA；5 ng/L+0.05 µg/L 至 10 µg/L+100 µg/L) 在贻贝鳃上在 12 天的暴露期间。尽管在贻贝鳃中未观察到组织学改变，但在 CAF+SA 暴露后的 T12 观察到血细胞浸润，这由流式细胞术证实，透明细胞增加。两种治疗均诱导脂质过氧化和胆碱能神经毒性，而抗氧化系统无法抵消这些毒性。我们强调了药物在环境情景下对生物群构成的生物风险，有助于加强生态药物警戒计划和改善废水处理厂的功效。