Efficiency of the removal of tetraethyl pyrophosphate (TEPP) pesticide in water: use of cork granules as a natural adsorbent on acetylcholinesterase activity in neuronal PC12 cell

Abstract

Tetraethyl pyrophosphate (TEPP) is an organophosphate pesticide that irreversibly inhibits acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Cork powder or granules have been recommended as a sustainable sorbent to remove pesticides from water. In the present study, we evaluated the effectiveness of removing TEPP from water using wine corks to obtain cork granules as natural adsorbent, analyzing the TEPP effects on AChE activity in commercial enzyme from Electrophorus electricus and secreted by neuronal PC12 cells. TEPP inhibited AChE activity in a concentration-dependent manner. For the first time, we showed that different concentrations of TEPP diluted in water after adsorption experiments using cork granules decreased TEPP's inhibitory effects on AChE activity in commercial enzyme and neuronal PC12 cell culture medium. Our results suggest that the optimum removal of TEPP from water by corks was 91.4 ± 4.0%. Overall, the findings support the hypothesis that cork granules can be used to remediate pesticide-contaminated environments, such as those contaminated by organophosphate pesticides, and demonstrate a new application of a biochemical assay on AChE activity using a commercial enzyme or secreted by neuronal PC12 cells in culture as a possible methodologic strategy for evaluating the success of TEPP removal from water.

Keywords:

• Adsorption
• AChE inhibition
• low-cost materials
• organophosphates
• sustainable sorbent

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the technical group of the Experimental Morphophysiology Laboratory for assistance in the biochemical and cell culture procedures. Thanks are also due to the administrative-technical group of Natural and Humanities Sciences Center for secretarial assistance.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interest or personal relationships that might have influenced the research presented in this study.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19217001.v1, reference number 19217001.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) (Finance Code 001).