The global problem of the presence of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals in the environment is under investigation. Despite the increase in the knowledge of its sources, fates and impacts, the ...assessment of risks and the derived prevention actions are limited to single cases. The predicted increasing trend in the usage of pharmaceuticals forces the various parties involved to think about comprehensive mitigation actions. There are many areas of daily human life and industrial operations where such actions should take place. Thereby, in the presented review, such actions were summarized and divided into the following groups: A. design, synthesis and production of pharmaceuticals, B. prescription, sales and waste handling, C. control of the sources with advanced technologies. As the total amount of proposed actions was found to be quite high, a ranking according to the term of effects was proposed using the pyramid of needs. The advantages of actions taken in the first steps of the pharmaceutical life cycle (acting on the upstream) over end-of-pipe actions and the application of advanced technologies (the downstream option) were discussed, with reference to expert opinions.
The study focused on the application of GC in the quantitative analysis of bisphenols and their analogues (12 analytes), and the improvement of solid-phase extraction for the whole water analysis of ...complex water samples. The role of silylation in the qualitative and quantitative analysis of bisphenols was investigated. Partial degradation occurred for selected targets during hot injection with the presence of a silylation agent. A PSA (primary and secondary amines) sorbent placed on the top of the solid-phase extraction (SPE) column sorbent was found to be a matrix component trap, mostly for humic acids. The whole water analysis was performed by washing the filters with methanol and recycling the extract to the sample. The validation of SPE-GC/MS(SIM) gave limits of detection of 1–50 ng/L for ten target bisphenols with a method recovery of between 87 and 133%. The application of the method was tested by the analysis of wastewater sampled from three wastewater treatment plants located in Poland, and municipal surface waters. The only analytes found were BPA and BPS, within the range of 16–1465 ng/L and < MDL-1249 ng/L in wastewater, and 170–3113 ng/L and < MDL-1584 ng/L in surface water, respectively.
More than 100000 solid organ transplantations are performed every year worldwide. Calcineurin (cyclosporine A, tacrolimus), serine/threonine kinase (sirolimus, everolimus) and inosine monophosphate ...dehydrogenase inhibitor (mycophenolate mofetil), are the most common drugs used as immunosuppressive agents after solid organ transplantation. Immunosuppressive therapy, although necessary after transplantation, is associated with many adverse consequences, including the formation of secondary metabolites of drugs and the induction of their side effects. Calcineurin inhibitors are associated with nephrotoxicity, cardiotoxicity and neurotoxicity; moreover, they increase the risk of many diseases after transplantation. The review presents a study of the movement of drugs in the body, including the processes of absorption, distribution, localisation in tissues, biotransformation and excretion, and also their accompanying side effects. Therefore, there is a necessity to monitor immunosuppressants, especially because these drugs are characterised by narrow therapeutic ranges. Their incorrect concentrations in a patient’s blood could result in transplant rejection or in the accumulation of toxic effects. Immunosuppressive pharmaceuticals are macrolide lactones, peptides, and high molecular weight molecules that can be metabolised to several metabolites. Therefore the two main analytical methods used for their determination are high performance liquid chromatography with various detection methods and immunoassay methods. Despite the rapid development of new analytical methods of analysing immunosuppressive agents, the application of the latest generation of detectors and increasing sensitivity of such methods, there is still a great demand for the development of highly selective, sensitive, specific, rapid and relatively simple methods of immunosuppressive drugs analysis.
The presence of both pollutants: microplastics and pharmaceutical residues in various environmental compartments is an issue of increasing concern. Available literature data indicates that ...microplastics can affect the environmental distribution and transport of e.g. persistent organic pollutants (POPs) through sorption interactions, concentrating them at a given point and thus influencing the environmental risks represented by the sorbent and sorbate pair. Therefore, their potential to change the fate of other contaminants in the environment, such as pharmaceuticals, is worth investigating. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sorption capacity of nine pharmaceuticals, commonly used in human and veterinary medicine, which constitute known ubiquitous water pollutants: enrofloxacin (ENR), ciprofloxacin (CIP), norfloxacin (NOR), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), methotrexate (MET), flubendazole (FLU), fenbendazole (FEN), propranolol (PRO) and nadolol (NAD), on the surface of the most often identified microscopic plastic particles in the aquatic environment, i.e. polypropylene (PP), low density polyethylene (LD-PE), high density polyethylene (HD-PE) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The obtained results suggest a complex nature of sorption, including both hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions. However, since the ionic strength of the medium was found to be a significant factor influencing the sorption potential, minute interactions are observed in conditions common for the natural environment.
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•Instrumental analysis of residues of the selected pharmaceuticals.•Adsorption study of pharmaceuticals on microplastics.•Assessing the influence of ionic strength on the adsorption of pharmaceuticals.•Assessing the influence of pH on the adsorption of pharmaceuticals.
Altered metabolism of lipids is currently considered a hallmark characteristic of many malignancies, including colorectal cancer (CRC). Lipids are a large group of metabolites that differ in terms of ...their fatty acid composition. This review summarizes recent evidence, documenting many alterations in the content and composition of fatty acids, polar lipids, oxylipins and triacylglycerols in CRC patients' sera, tumor tissues and adipose tissue. Some of altered lipid molecules may be potential biomarkers of CRC risk, development and progression. Owing to a significant role of many lipids in cancer cell metabolism, some of lipid metabolism pathways may also constitute specific targets for anti-CRC therapy.
The presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, even at very low concentrations, has raised concerns among stakeholders such as drinking-water regulators, governments, water suppliers and the ...public, with regard to the potential risks to humans. Despite this, the occurrence and the fate of pharmaceuticals in drinking waters of many countries (e.g. in Poland) remains unknown. There is a lack of sufficiently sensitive and reliable analytical methods for such analyses and a need for more in-depth hydrogeological analysis of the possible sources of drug residues in drinking water. In this paper, a multi-residual method for the simultaneous determination of seventeen human pharmaceuticals in drinking waters has been developed. Large-volume extractions using Speedisk extraction disks, and derivatization prior to GC-MS-SIM analysis using a new silylating agent DIMETRIS were applied. The method detection limits (MDLs) ranged from 0.9 to 5.7ng/L and the absolute recoveries of the target compounds were above 80% for most analytes. The developed method was successfully applied in the analysis of the target compounds in drinking water collected in Gdansk (Poland), and of the 17 pharmaceuticals, 6 compounds were detected at least once. During the investigation, the geomorphology of the site region was taken into account, possible sources of pharmaceuticals in the analysed drinking water samples were investigated, and the presence of the drugs in ground and surface waters, raw and treated drinking waters was determined. Concentrations were also compared with those observed in other countries. As a result, this study has not only developed a new analytical method for determining pharmaceuticals in drinking waters as well as rendering missing information for Poland (a country with one of the highest consumptions of pharmaceuticals in Europe), but it also presents a modelled in-depth hydrogeological analysis of the real sources of drugs in drinking waters.
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•Development of the multi-residue SPE-GC/MS(SIM) method using a new silylating agent•First application of the speedisks for the extraction of drugs from drinking water•Determination of drugs in ground and surface water, raw and treated drinking water•Deep hydrogeological analysis of possible sources of drugs in drinking water•First data on the concentration of the target compounds in drinking water in Poland
Passive techniques are a constantly evolving method of monitoring water pollution, allowing the simultaneous sampling and concentration of selected chemical compounds. The most popular aqueous ...passive samplers are those in which sorbents are used as receiving phases, including: the Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS). Originally, POCIS contained the copolymer poly(divinylbenzene)-
co
-
N
-vinylpyrrolidone, which allowed the collection of analytes with 0 ≤ log
K
ow
≤ 5, The limitation of the use of conventional samplers for sampling water pollutants only with a specific polarity has resulted in the fact that innovative sorbents are used more and more in POCIS-like samplers. In recent years, application of several innovative sorbents in POCIS-like samplers, for example: mixed-mode ion exchange polymeric sorbents, ionic liquids, molecularly imprinted polymers and carbon nanotubes has been described. This is the first review in which the usability of classical and innovative sorbents used in passive techniques principles has been collected and compared, and it has been shown that the type of sorbent can significantly affect the efficiency of sampling pollutants in the aquatic environment. The major points are the following: 1) principle of operation, of passive samplers, 2) characteristics of POCIS and sorbents used as receiving phases, 3) sampler calibration methods and environmental factors affecting their operation, 4) a detailed description of the application possibilities of conventional and innovative sorbents used in POCIS-like samplers. This review shows the growing number of works on the use of innovative sorption materials to overcome limitation of originally designed POCIS, and the published results, allow us to conclude that the type of sorbent may be a key factor in increasing the applicability of POCIS-like samplers.
•Review of analytical methods for the determination of pharmaceuticals in biota.•Bioaccumulative pharmaceuticals are present in the environment.•Occurrence of pharmaceuticals is evident in aquatic ...and terrestrial organisms.
The presence of pharmaceutical residues in various environmental compartments is an issue of increasing concern. The widespread occurrence of these compounds in water and soil samples has been demonstrated in a number of analytical studies. However, the data about their concentrations in biota samples is scarce. Moreover, the trophic transfer of pharmaceuticals remains largely unexplored, despite increasing evidence of the potential bioaccumulation of those compounds. Therefore, the main aim of this review is to present an overview of the current state of data about the bioaccumulation and analytical methodologies used for the determination of pharmaceutical residues in biota samples. This work focuses on the most commonly found pharmaceuticals in the environment: antibiotics, analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs, steroid hormones, antihypertensives and antidepressants. We do hope that the collected data will allow a better understanding of pharmaceutical pollution and the exposure of non-target organisms. However, although impressive progress has undoubtedly been made, in order to fully understand the behavior of these chemicals in the environment, there are still numerous gaps to be filled in our overall knowledge in this field.
•The number of small molecules analyzed by MALDI MS using ILM is relatively low.•The highlighted advantages were reported for rather low number of ILMs.•The lower time of MALDI analysis can be ...achieve thanks to the ILMs application.•Often higher laser energy was needed for effective ionization supported by the ILMs.•Guidelines for the selection of ILMs for a specific task are awaiting to be presented.
Ionic liquid matrices (ILMs) were introduced almost 20 years ago as alternatives to crystal matrices for MALDI MS analysis. They are protic ionic liquids synthesized by mixing conventional acidic MALDI matrices with an equimolar number of organic amines. They have certain advantageous attributes, such as: i. high homogeneity of the matrix + sample mixture, which increases the shot-to-shot reproducibility, ii. reducing the background on mass spectra, which is why molecules with low masses can be analyzed, and iii. the possibility of the quantitative analysis of small molecules.
This review aims to present updated reports on the applicability of ILMs for the quantification of small molecules, and to critically discuss the features therein. The number of reports presenting quantitative analysis using ILMs is relatively small, despite the wide range of synthesized ILMs. Various representatives of small peptides, amino acids, pharmaceuticals, drugs, oligosaccharides, alkaloids and toxins were analyzed using ILMs based on DHB and CHCA acids. Furthermore, ILMs were found to be applicable for the imaging and mapping of lipids and small peptides. Even relatively similar ILMs vary from one another due to their ionization potential (intensity of signals in positive and negative ion extraction mode, fragmentation rate, adduct formation). Currently, there are no guidelines for the selection of ILMs for a specific task, which would appear to be a milestone in the application of ILMs for MALDI MS.
Doxycycline (DOX), an antibiotic commonly used in medicine and veterinary, is frequently detected in natural waterways. Exposition of bacteria to DOX residuals poses a selective pressure leading to a ...common occurrence of DOX-resistance genetic determinants among microorganisms, including virulent human pathogens. In view of diminishment of the available therapeutic options, we developed a continuous-flow reaction-discharge system generating pulse-modulated radio-frequency atmospheric pressure glow discharge (pm-rf-APGD) intended for DOX removal from liquid solutions. A Design of Experiment and a Response Surface Methodology were implemented in the optimisation procedure. The removal efficiency of DOX equalling 79 ± 4.5% and the resultant degradation products were identified by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Diode Array Detection, Liquid Chromatography Quadruple Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry, Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, Attenuated Total Reflectance Furrier Transform-Infrared, and UV/Vis-based methods. The pm-rf-APGD-treated DOX solution due to the generated Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species either lost its antimicrobial properties towards Escherichia coli ATCC25922 or significantly decreased biocidal activities by 37% and 29% in relation to Staphylococcus haemolyticus ATCC29970 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25904, respectively. Future implementation of this efficient and eco-friendly antibiotic-degradation technology into wastewater purification systems is predicted.
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