An integrative biological effects assessment of a mine discharge into a Norwegian fjord using field transplanted mussels.

The blue mussel (Mytilus sp.) has been used to assess the potential biological effects of the discharge effluent from the Omya Hustadmarmor mine, which releases its tailings into the Frænfjord near Molde, Norway. Chemical body burden and a suite of biological effects markers were measured in mussels positioned for 8 weeks at known distances from the discharge outlet. The biomarkers used included: condition index (CI); stress on stress (SoS); micronuclei formation (MN); acetylcholine esterase (AChE) inhibition, lipid peroxidation (LPO) and Neutral lipid (NL) accumulation. Methyl triethanol ammonium (MTA), a chemical marker for the esterquat based flotation chemical (FLOT2015), known to be used at the mine, was detected in mussels positioned 1500 m and 2000 m downstream from the discharge outlet. Overall the biological responses indicated an increased level of stress in mussels located closest to the discharge outlet. The same biomarkers (MN, SoS, NL) were responsible for the integrated biological response (IBR/n) of the two closest stations and indicates a response to a common point source. The integrated biological response index (IBR/n) reflected the expected level of exposure to the mine effluent, with the highest IBR/n calculated in mussels positioned closest to the discharge. Principal component analysis (PCA) also showed a clear separation between the mussel groups, with the most stressed mussels located closest to the mine tailing outlet. Although not one chemical factor could explain the increased stress on the mussels, highest metal (As, Co, Ni, Cd, Zn, Ag, Cu, Fe) and MTA concentrations were detected in the mussel group located closest to the mine discharge.

Incidence of anticancer drugs in an aquatic urban system: from hospital effluents through urban wastewater to natural environment.

The presence of 10 anticancer drugs was studied along the entire urban water cycle -from hospital effluents through urban wastewater treatment plant till surface waters- and their potential environmental risk was assessed. Azathioprine, etoposide, docetaxel, paclitaxel, methotrexate, cyclophosphamide, tamoxifen and ciprofloxacin were detected in hospital effluent and in the urban influent of the sewage treatment plant although most of them were totally eliminated after WWTP. Only cyclophosphamide, tamoxifen and ciprofloxacin were found in both WWTP effluent and in the receiving river at a concentration range between nd-20 ng L(-1), 25-38 ng L(-1) and 7-103 ng L(-1) respectively. Tamoxifen and ciprofloxacin, commonly used for veterinary practices, were also detected in the river upstream the sewage discharge. In addition, they both were considered to pose a potential risk to the environment based on the levels found in the WWTP effluent together with their ecotoxicological impact in selected organisms.

Effects on activated sludge bacterial community exposed to sulfamethoxazole.

The bacterial community shift on a lab scale Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) fed with synthetic wastewater and exposed to 50µgL(-1) of sulfamethoxazole (SFX) for 2months was investigated in this study. The impact on biological nutrient removal performance and SFX removal efficiencies were also studied. Satisfactory biological nutrient removal was observed as regards to COD and Nitrogen. SFX removal efficiencies ranged between 20% and 50% throughout the experimental period, enhanced within the aerobic phases of the SBR cycle, with no evident signs of biomass acclimation. Nevertheless, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis showed significant variance leading to not only the fading, but also the emergence of new species in the bioreactor bacterial community after SFX dosage. According to the phylogenetic analysis, bacteria belonging to Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria classes were the dominant species, among them, the Thiotrix spp. (Gammaproteobacteria) cell number increased due to its tolerance to the antibiotic. On the other hand, the classes Sphingobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi and Chlorobi were found to be more vulnerable to the antibiotic load and disappeared. The sulphonamide resistance gene sulI was also quantified and discussed, as there are very few studies on bacterial resistance in lab-scale treatment reactors.

Development of a UPLC-MS/MS method for the determination of ten anticancer drugs in hospital and urban wastewaters, and its application for the screening of human metabolites assisted by information-dependent acquisition tool (IDA) in sewage samples.

In the present work, the development, optimization, and validation (including a whole stability study) of a fast, reliable, and comprehensive method for the analysis of ten anticancer drugs in hospital and urban wastewater is described. Extraction of these pharmaceutical compounds was performed using automated off-line solid-phase extraction followed by their determination by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a triple quadrupole-linear ion trap mass spectrometer. Target compounds include nine cytotoxic agents: cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, docetaxel, paclitaxel, etoposide, vincristine, tamoxifen, methotrexate, and azathioprine; and the cytotoxic quinolone, ciprofloxacin. Method detection limits (MDL) ranged from 0.8 to 24 ng/L. Levels found of cytostatic agents in the hospital and wastewater influents did not differ significantly, and therefore, hospitals cannot be considered as the primary source of this type of contaminants. All the target compounds were detected in at least one of the influent samples analyzed: Ciprofloxacin, cyclophosphamide, tamoxifen, and azathioprine were found in most of them and achieving maximum levels of 14.725, 0.201, 0.133, and 0.188 µg/L, respectively. The rest of target cancer drugs were less frequently detected and at values ranging between MDL and 0.406 µg/L. Furthermore, a feasible, useful, and advantageous approach based on information acquisition tool (information-dependent acquisition) was used for the screening of human metabolites in hospital effluents, where the hydroxy tamoxifen, endoxifen, and carboxyphosphamide were detected.

Removal of ibuprofen and its transformation products: experimental and simulation studies.

Pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) deserve attention because of their effect on ecosystems and human health, as well as their continuous introduction into the aquatic environment. Classification schemes are suggested to characterise their biological degradation, e.g., based on pseudo-first-order kinetics, but these schemes can vary significantly, presumably due to pharmaceutical loads, sludge characteristics and experimental conditions. Degradation data for PhAC transformation products (TPs) are largely lacking. The present work focuses not only on the biodegradation of the pharmaceutical compound ibuprofen but also on its best-known TPs (i.e., carboxyl ibuprofen and both hydroxyl ibuprofen isomers). Ibuprofen is one of the most commonly consumed PhACs and can be found in different environmental compartments. The experiment performed consisted of a set of aerated batch tests with different suspended solid and ibuprofen concentrations to determine the influence of these parameters on the calculated biodegradation constant (K(biol)). Sampling of the liquid phase at different scheduled times was assessed, removal efficiencies were calculated and pseudo-first-order kinetics were adjusted to obtain experimental K(biol) values for the parent compound and its TPs. The experimental data were successfully fitted to ASM-based models, with K(biol) values for the target compounds ranging from almost 1 to 17 L gSST(-1) d(-1), depending on the concentrations of the biomass and ibuprofen. This work provides innovative knowledge not only regarding the removal of TPs but also the formation kinetics of these TPs.

Ketanserin potentiates morphine-induced antinociception mediated by kappa-receptor activation.

How can we treat patients with reduced morphine doses without loosing the pain killing effect or morphine antinociceptive effects (MAE)? To address this question, we hypothesized that serotonin (5-HT2) receptor antagonism could enhance MAE mediated by kappa-opioid receptors. We pretreated mice with ketanserin, a 5-HT2 receptor antagonist, and measured the morphine dose required to observe analgesia. The morphine dose effective in 50% of animals (ED(50)) was reduced from 4.7 to 1.3mg/kg, and the morphine dose effective in 100% of animals (ED(max)) from 13.7 to 2.5mg/kg. Ketanserin has a similar enhancer effect when morphine, which has a dual role via mu and kappa receptors, was substituted by the antinociceptive spiradoline, a selective κ-opioid agonist. At a morphine dose of 3.5mg/kg, 30% of the mice showed antinociceptive behaviour, rising to 100% when ketanserin was co-administered and then reduced to 20% in the presence of nor-binaltorphimine, a kappa-opioid receptor antagonist. Our data strongly suggests a serotonergic inhibition of the kappa-opioid component of MAE and the possibility that this serotonergic inhibition could be reversed through 5-HT2 receptor antagonism.