Search Results (9)

Among the various compounds regarded as emerging contaminants (ECs), pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are of particular concern. Their continuous release into the environment has a negative global impact on human life. This review summarizes the sources, occurrence, persistence, consequences of exposure, and toxicity of PPCPs, and evaluates the various analytical methods used in the identification and quantification of PPCPs in a variety of solid and liquid environmental matrices. The current techniques of choice for the analysis of PPCPs are state-of-the-art liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) or tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS²). However, the complexity of the environmental matrices and the trace levels of micropollutants necessitate the use of advanced sample treatments before these instrumental analyses. Solid-phase extraction (SPE) with different sorbents is now the predominant method used for the extraction of PPCPs from environmental samples. This review also addresses the ongoing analytical method challenges, including sample clean-up and matrix effects, focusing on the occurrence, sample preparation, and analytical methods presently available for the determination of environmental residues of PPCPs. Continuous development of innovative analytical methods is essential for overcoming existing limitations and ensuring the consistency and diversity of analytical methods used in investigations of environmental multi-class compounds. Full article

Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) are pollutants known as organic micropollutants. PPCPs belong to a group of compounds with proven biological activity used in medicine, veterinary medicine and to maintain hygiene in daily life. Their presence in the environment, even in trace concentrations, can have negative effects on living organisms, including humans. Especially relevant are the residues of pharmaceuticals such as hormonal drugs and antibiotics. PPCPs’ presence in the environment is caused by the improper production, usage and disposal of medicines. PPCPs and their residues may be introduced into the various parts of the environment such as wastewater, water and soil. Therefore, wastewater containing PPCPs, their residues and active metabolites firstly goes to a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). However, some of these compounds may also be present in sewage sludge. This article reviews the methods and technologies used in the remediation of water and wastewater containing PPCPs residues. Among them, physical, chemical and biological methods, as well as a compilation of various techniques, can be identified. Nowadays, in a time of energy crisis, it is important to emphasize that the applied methods of wastewater and water treatment are not only effective, but also have been characterized by low energy consumption or allow for the generation of energy that could be used for the needs of the wastewater treatment plant. Full article

Excessive consumption of cleaning and disinfecting agents, which constitute a distinct group of emergent pollutants known as PPCPs (“Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products”), results in their accumulation in aquatic environments. Conventional wastewater treatment plants are unable to effectively remove the emergent pollutants that are present, including personal care product residues. This article focuses on the determination of surfactant substances in model samples prepared from selected personal care products and their biodegradability under laboratory-created aquatic ecosystem conditions. The conducted biodegradation processes, based on the monitored indicator (surfactants) in the model samples, confirm that the utilization of aquatic vegetation and gravel substrates can efficiently eliminate the present contaminants. Insights gained from researching the biodegradability of PPCP group products are applicable, including experiences with plant compositions used in aquatic environments, particularly in the construction of root-zone wastewater treatment systems. Full article

Pharmaceutical personal care products (PPCPs) have increased in consumption due to the worldwide post-pandemic situation, marking them as chemical and pathogenic pollutants in significantly higher concentrations than ever in the ecosystem. Considering the inexplicable levels of these chemical residues discharged into the environment, concerns have been raised regarding their probable ecotoxicity to marine and terrestrial life. A further concern is the potential for developing and spreading antibiotic-resistant microorganisms and genes in aquatic ecosystems due to antibiotic exposure. Hence, knowing how these compounds impact aquatic ecosystem functioning is imperative, and thus is a critical area of research. The ecological risk analysis of PPCPs in aquatic ecosystems has been carried out using various strategies. Previous studies have reported numerous approaches for eliminating these PPCPs, including conventional treatment methods, activated sludge processes, generated wetlands, biological remediation, sequencing batch reactors, phytoremediation, and membrane bioreactors. In terms of green biotechnology approaches, the current research aims to discover effective procedures for removing PPCPs and their emerging resources as pollutants. Therefore, this review focuses on the over-extensive utilization of PPCPs and their emergent sources responsible for the contamination and environmental threat for future wastewater purposes. Further, as fungi and their enzymes and derivatives can remove pharmaceuticals and personal care products from wastewater through oxidation and several processes, they have attracted the attention of the scientific community due to their ability to remove PPCPs as pollutants and their status as emerging resources in wastewater. This review examines the fundamental approach and progress of the bioremediation of pharmaceutical- and personal-care-contaminated wastewater using fungal-based systems. It also discusses mechanistic approaches through hybridizing cultures and other biological systems with fungal strains, current technologies, and prospects for future research on PPCPs in wastewater treatment. Full article

The Buenavista landfill is located east of the city of Medellín, but it has a slope steeper than 30% and is less than 600 m away from the Piedras River, possibly influencing the quality of the drinking water in the city. Many complex residues are disposed of in this landfill, including pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) such as levonorgestrel (LNG), which may reach water bodies via runoff and leaching. We assessed the levels of LNG in the effluent of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor from the Buenavista landfill by uHPLC–DAD, as well as the endocrine disruptor effect of LNG on placental cell lines (BeWo) and human sperm cells. Additionally, the potential leaching of LNG was assayed under laboratory conditions using soil layers that were sampled from the Buenavista landfill. LNG was detected at levels of 315 μg·L⁻¹ in the effluents of the UASB reactor. Thus, the UASB reactor is not an efficient treatment method for the removal of recalcitrant pollutants. Additionally, we found that a layer of soil used as a cover material may adsorb more than 90% of LNG pollutants, but small amounts may still be leached, which means that a cover material is not a strong enough barrier to fully prevent the leaching of LNG. Finally, our results show that the leachate fraction decreased the levels of β-human chorionic gonadotropin, but not sperm motility or viability. Thus, leached LNG could trigger reproduction disorders, but further studies should be carried out to investigate its potential effects in more detail. Full article

Protein phosphorylation is essential for regulating cellular activities by modifying substrates at specific residues, which frequently interact with proteins containing phosphoprotein-binding domains (PPBDs) to propagate the phosphorylation signaling into downstream pathways. Although massive phosphorylation sites (p-sites) have been reported, most of their interacting PPBDs are unknown. Here, we collected 4458 known PPBD-specific binding p-sites (PBSs), considerably improved our previously developed group-based prediction system (GPS) algorithm, and implemented a deep learning plus transfer learning strategy for model training. Then, we developed a new online service named GPS-PBS, which can hierarchically predict PBSs of 122 single PPBD clusters belonging to two groups and 16 families. By comparison, GPS-PBS achieved a highly competitive accuracy against other existing tools. Using GPS-PBS, we predicted 371,018 mammalian p-sites that potentially interact with at least one PPBD, and revealed that various PPBD-containing proteins (PPCPs) and protein kinases (PKs) can simultaneously regulate the same p-sites to orchestrate important pathways, such as the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Taken together, we anticipate GPS-PBS can be a great help for further dissecting phosphorylation signaling networks. Full article

An important component of micropollutants are PPCPs (pharmaceuticals and personal care products). This paper contains the results of the monitoring of surface water, groundwater and wastewater in the surrounding area of the Svihov drinking water reservoir. Over the period 2017–2019, over 21,000 water samples were taken and analyzed for 112 pharmaceuticals, their metabolites, and other chemicals. The results are discussed in detail for two streams with the highest observed concentration of PPCPs (Hnevkovice, Dolni Kralovice) and two streams with the highest water inflow into the reservoir, representing also the highest mass flow of PPCPs into the reservoir (Miletin, Kacerov). The overall analysis of the results shows that acesulfame, azithromycin, caffeine, gabapentin, hydrochlorothiazide, ibuprofen and its metabolites, oxypurinol, paraxanthine, and saccharin (on some profiles up to tens of thousands ng/dm³) attain the highest concentration and occur most frequently. The evaluation of raw water and treated drinking water quality showed the significant positive effect of water retention in the reservoir (retention time of 413 days) and also of the treatment process, so that the treated drinking water is of high quality and contains only negligible residues of few PPCPs near the detection limit of the analytical method used. Full article

The presence of pharmaceutical and personal care product (PPCP) residues in the aquatic environment is an emerging issue due to their uncontrolled release through gray water, and accumulation in the environment that may affect living organisms, ecosystems and public health. The aim of this study is to assess the toxicity of benzophenone-3 (BP-3), bis-ethylhexyloxyphenol methoxyphenyl triazine (BEMT), butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane (BM), methylene bis-benzotriazolyl tetramethylbutylphenol (MBBT), 2-ethylhexyl salicylate (ES), diethylaminohydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate (DHHB), diethylhexyl butamido triazone (DBT), ethylhexyl triazone (ET), homosalate (HS) and octocrylene (OC) on marine organisms from two major trophic levels, including autotrophs (Tetraselmis sp.) and heterotrophs (Artemia salina). In general, results showed that both HS and OC were the most toxic UV filters for our tested species, followed by a significant effect of BM on Artemia salina due to BM—but only at high concentrations (1 mg/L). ES, BP3 and DHHB affected the metabolic activity of the microalgae at 100 µg/L. BEMT, DBT, ET, MBBT had no effect on the tested organisms, even at high concentrations (2 mg/L). OC toxicity represents a risk for those species, since concentrations used in this study are 15–90 times greater than those reported in occurrence studies for aquatic environments. For the first time in the literature, we report HS toxicity on a microalgae species at concentrations complementing those found in aquatic environments. These preliminary results could represent a risk in the future if concentrations of OC and HS continue to increase. Full article

To elucidate the adsorption property and the mechanism of plant residues to reduce oxytetracycline (OTC), the adsorption of OTC onto raw willow roots (WR-R), stems (WS-R), leaves (WL-R), and adsorption onto desugared willow roots (WR-D), stems (WS-D), and leaves (WL-D) were investigated. The structural characterization was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectra, and an elemental analyzer. OTC adsorption onto the different tissues of willow residues was compared and correlated with their structures. The adsorption kinetics of OTC onto willow residues was found to follow the pseudo-first-order model. The isothermal adsorption process of OTC onto the different tissues of willow residues followed the Langmuir and Freundlich model and the process was also a spontaneous endothermic reaction, which was mainly physical adsorption. After the willow residues were desugared, the polarity decreased and the aromaticity increased, which explained why the adsorption amounts of the desugared willow residues were higher than those of the unmodified residues. These observations suggest that the raw and modified willow residues have great potential as adsorbents to remove organic pollutants. Full article