QACs & DDBAC: A Widely Used but Overlooked Pollutant
QACs have been used as disinfectants for a long time, and more people are using them now because of the COVID-19 pandemic. DDBAC is one of the most commonly used BACs and is used as an active ingredient in commercial disinfectants, sanitizers, and phase transfer agents. Yet, its common use has caused wastewater and even surface water around the world to get contaminated with DDBAC residues. Its residue concentrations as high as 6.5 mg/L were detected in China in 2020. DDBAC pollution is a big deal because it can move around in water, soil, animals, plants, and tiny organisms. This stuff can be harmful to living things and even put our health at risk.
How Does DDBAC Affect the Environment & honeybees？
DDBAC can harm the environment mainly by breaking down the cell membranes of bacteria. It messes with enzymes that are important for those bacteria and can also mess with their energy processes. Long-term use of topical medications containing DDBAC has been reported to induce disruption of human corneal cell membranes, resulting in impaired epithelial barrier function, increased lysophospholipids, and decreased phospholipids in human epithelial corneal cells. Also, being around DDBAC for a long time can harm nerve function and DNA in animals and plants, stopping their cells from dividing properly. Given these indications that DDBAC exposure can have deleterious effects on eukaryotic cells, it is necessary to analyze the hazards of DDBAC in the environment.
The honeybee has become a widely studied indicator species for studying environmental pollution because of its dependence on the environment, such as requiring a foraging area of more than 7 square kilometers for nectar, pollen, and water. Increased environmental pollutants currently threaten the survival of honeybees, and the collapse of honey bee colonies has caused significant agricultural losses and ecological damage. Honeybees need water, nectar from plants, and pollen to survive. If DDBAC gets into the soil or water, or if it’s used in disinfectants for beekeeping, it can be harmful to bees. Therefore, evaluating the potential hazards of DDBAC exposure to honeybees can provide early warnings of the health effects of DDBAC on honeybee colonies and may support the development of guidelines for the proper management of DDBAC to ensure the protection of our ecology and agriculture.
The Need for Stricter DDBAC Management
We did some tests to see how different levels of DDBAC impact adult honeybees, looking at both deadly and less harmful amounts. The in situ distribution of DDBAC in the honey bee midgut was determined using MALDI-MS imaging analysis, and the effects of DDBAC on honey bee midgut tissue were assessed by histopathological examination. They looked at how DDBAC exposure affects the microbial communities in honey bee midguts, the makeup of their phospholipids, and how signals are processed by using microbiome, lipidome, and transcriptome analyses.
In this study, we identified the lethal toxicity of DDBAC to honeybees and monitored the accumulation of DDBAC in the honey bee midgut. We observed damage to the epithelial layer of midgut tissue at the morphological level. In addition, we found a decrease in the abundance of beneficial midgut microbiota, significant changes in midgut phospholipid composition, and altered expression of genes involved in the honey bee calcium signaling pathway after exposure to sublethal concentrations of DDBAC. Our study found that DDBAC exposure negatively impacts the midgut function of honey bees. Chemicals that are harmful to bees can also put global food security at risk. Our research demonstrated the impact of DDBAC on bee health, highlighting the significance of effectively managing and eliminating QAC residues to protect honey bees, the ecosystem, and agricultural yields.
