Determination of Ten Macrolide Drugs in Environmental Water Using Molecularly Imprinted Solid-Phase Extraction Coupled with Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

Xuqin Song,Jingmeng Xie,Meiyu Zhang,Limin He,Tong Zhou,Jiufeng Li

doi:10.3390/molecules23051172

Abstract

With the extensive application of antibiotics in livestock, their contamination of the aquatic environment has received more attention. Molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), as an eco-friendly and durable solid-phase extraction material, has shown great potential for the separation and enrichment of antibiotics in water. This study aims at developing a practical and economical method based on molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction (MISPE) combined with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for simultaneously detecting ten macrolide drugs in different sources of water samples. The MIP was synthesized by bulk polymerization using tylosin as the template and methacrylic acid as the functional monomer. The MIP exhibited a favorable load-bearing capacity for water (>90 mL), which is more than triple that of non-molecularly imprinted polymers (NIP). The mean recoveries of macrolides at four spiked concentration levels (limit of quantification, 40, 100, and 400 ng/L) were 62.6–100.9%, with intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviations below 12.6%. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were 1.0–15.0 ng/L and 3.0–40.0 ng/L, respectively. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of real water samples.

Highlights

In recent decades, with the increasing risk of antibiotic resistance, researchers are not the only focus on the antibiotics residue in animal products, but they are concerned about the contamination of antibiotics in the environment [1,2,3]
Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), which has the advantages of unambiguous identification and accurate quantification, is the preferred strategy to detect moleculesMacrolide drugs (MALs) in water [10,11,12]
Small amounts of adsorbents will lead to the leakage of analytes, while adsorbents may cause the low speed of solid-phase extraction (SPE) processes

Summary

Introduction

With the increasing risk of antibiotic resistance, researchers are not the only focus on the antibiotics residue in animal products, but they are concerned about the contamination of antibiotics in the environment [1,2,3]. There are mainly two reasons for the pollution of water by antibiotics. Macrolide drugs (MALs) are widely used in the clinical treatment of infections caused by sensitive bacteria and used as growth promoters for food-produced animals under a low dosage [9]. If we ignore the withdrawal period or do not take effective actions to dispose of animal manure, MALs will contaminate the water or crops. The sustainable consumption of contaminated water or crops would lead to the occurrence of antibiotic resistance and cause adverse effects such as allergic reactions. Monitoring MAL residues in environmental water is important to control the spread of antimicrobial resistance and ensure human health. Due to the low-concentration of antibiotics in water, the detection protocols should be sensitive enough to analyze such ultra-trace compounds. A pre-concentration step such as solid-phase extraction (SPE) or lyophilization is indispensable for the analysis of water samples [13,14,15]

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Results

Conclusion