Exposomics: The Effect of Legacy Polychlorinated Biphenyls on the Proteome of Fish Consumers in the Great Lakes Region.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals considered a "bioaccumulative chemical of concern" targeted by the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) that were introduced into the Great Lakes ecosystem long ago. Although the use of PCBs has been banned, they still exist in many ecosystems at dangerously high concentrations, and due to their lipophilic nature, they are able to biomagnify up the food web. Human consumers of fish from areas in the lakes that are highly polluted with PCBs are at risk for a variety of adverse health effects. In this study, sera from fish consumers in the Great Lakes basin were analyzed for legacy PCBs using isotope dilution mass spectrometry. Samples exhibiting the lowest concentrations of these chemicals were adopted as the "low-exposure group" and samples exhibiting the highest concentrations were adopted as the "high-exposure group." A proteomic analysis consisting of in-solution trypsin digestion, SDS-PAGE, in-gel trypsin digestion, and nanoLC-MS/MS was then performed on the two groups. This analysis aimed to determine if there were any correlations between protein dysregulations and high concentrations of PCBs in the sera. Proteins that were found to be dysregulated in relation to high concentrations of PCBs were haptoglobin, apolipoprotein CIII, apolipoprotein H, alpha-1B-glycoprotein, apolipoprotein B100, anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibody, vitamin D-binding protein precursor, and alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein.