GLOBAL TOXICITY ASSESSMENT: CHEMICALS, ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLES, AND ANALYTICAL METHODS Detoxification, oxidative stress, and cytogenotoxicity of crack cocaine in the brown mussel Perna perna Andressa dos Santos Barbosa Ortega 1 & Luciane Alves Maranho 1,2 & Caio Rodrigues Nobre 3 & Beatriz Barbosa Moreno 1 & Rafael Solé Guimarães 1 & Daniel Temponi Lebre 4 & Denis Moledo de Souza Abessa 3 & Daniel Araki Ribeiro 5 & Camilo Dias Seabra Pereira 1,2 Received: 15 November 2017 /Accepted: 20 February 2018 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract The presence of cocaine and its metabolites and by-products has been identified in different aquatic matrices, making crack cocaine the target of recent studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sublethal effects of crack on the brown mussel Perna perna. Mussels were exposed to three concentrations of crack cocaine (0.5, 5.0, and 50.0 μgL -1 ) for 168 h. Gills, digestive glands, and hemolymph were extracted and analyzed after three different exposure times using a suite of biomarkers (EROD, DBF, GST, GPX, LPO, DNA damage, ChE, and lysosomal membrane stability [LMS]). After 48 and 96 h of exposure, EROD, DBF, GST, GPX activities and DNA strand breaks in the gills increased significantly after 48 and 96 h of exposure. Alterations in LMS were also observed in the mussels exposed to all crack concentrations after 96 and 168 h. Our results demonstrated that crack cocaine is metabolized by CYP-like and GST activities in the gills. GPX was not able to prevent primary genetic damage, and cytotoxic effects in the hemocytes were also observed in a dose- and time-dependent response. Our study shows that the introduction of illicit drugs into coastal ecosystems must be considered a threat to marine organisms. Keywords Illicit drugs . Crack cocaine . Biomarkers . Marine organism . Adverse effects . Bivalves Introduction Emerging contaminants are compounds that can cause ad- verse damage to non-target organisms, and represent a gap in environmental legislation since they are not part of monitoring programs or environmental quality assessments. Frequent use or abuse of these compounds may constitute sources of contamination for aquatic environments (Gavrilescu et al. 2015). Illicit drugs and their metabolites are considered the newest emerging contaminants, due to their high biological activity and the unknown effects they may have on aquatic organisms (Pal et al. 2013). Brazil is responsible for 20% of global consumption of cocaine and its by-products. The country is part of the drug traffic route to Europe, mainly through its ports, and is the second-largest market for cocaine and largest consumer of crack cocaine in the world (UNODC 2014, 2016). Crack is a cocaine by-product; it is poorly soluble in water and has a low boiling temperature (90 °C) because of the presence of baking soda in its composition (Florence and Attwood 2006). Crack cocaine is widely consumed due to its low cost and more intense effects and is considered epidemic in urban areas (Ribeiro et al. 2006; Pulcherio et al. 2010). Cocaine has been quantified in aquatic matrices in many countries and sampled at sewage treatment stations and fresh- water environments in Australia, Colombia, Greece, England, France, Spain, Canada, Italy, and Belgium (Van Nujis et al. Responsible editor: Cinta Porte * Camilo Dias Seabra Pereira camilo.seabra@pq.cnpq.br 1 Departamento de Ciências do Mar, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Maria Máximo, 168, Santos 11030-100, Brazil 2 Laboratório de Ecotoxicologia, Universidade Santa Cecília, Rua Oswaldo Cruz 266, Santos 11045-907, Brazil 3 Instituto de Biociências, Campus do Litoral Paulista, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Infante Dom Henrique s/n, São Vicente 11330-900, Brazil 4 CEMSA – Centro de Espectrometria de Massas Aplicada, CIETEC/ IPEN, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 2242, Salas 112 e 113, São Paulo 05508-000, Brazil 5 Departamento de Biociências, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Av. Ana Costa 95, Santos 11060-001, Brazil Environmental Science and Pollution Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-1600-7