Integrated Monitoring of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: Analytical Chemistry and Biological Assessment Approaches

Abstract

Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) in aquatic environments pose significant threats to ecosystems and human health. These compounds interfere with hormonal regulation at low concentrations and have non-monotonic dose-response relationships, posing challenges to conventional risk assessment. This review systematically compares current EDC monitoring methods, including instrumental chemical analysis and receptor-based biological detection systems, to evaluate sensitivity thresholds, sample throughput, and mechanistic selectivity of different analytical platforms. The detection limit of the target compound by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry is 0.05-5 ng/L, and the estrogenic activity detected by reporter gene assays (such as ER-CALUX) is 0.01-0.05 ng EEQ/L. This analysis demonstrates that neither of these methods can provide complete information for risk evaluation alone. In addition, a hierarchical assessment framework that combines chemical quantification with effect-based biological evaluation is presented. These technologies such as aptamer-functionalized biosensors, omics profiling, and adverse outcome pathway modeling provide promising directions. This integrated approach can conduct comprehensive EDC monitoring and solve the problem of known contaminants and uncharacterized bioactive substances in environmental samples.