Elucidation of the photoinduced transformations of Aliskiren in river water using liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry

Nuno P.F Gonçalves,Lucia Iezzi,Masho H Belay,Valeria Dulio,Nikiforos Alygizakis,Federica Dal Bello,Claudio Medana,Paola Calza

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149547

Abstract

Aliskiren was selected as a compound of potential concern among a suspect screening list of more than 40,000 substances on a basis of high occurrence, potential risk and the absence of information about its environmental fate.This study investigated the photoinduced degradation of aliskiren in river water samples spiked at trace levels exposed to simulated sunlight. A half-life time of 24 h was observed with both direct and indirect photolysis playing a role on pollutant degradation. Its photo-induced transformation involved the formation of six transformation products (TPs), elucidated by LC-HRMS - resulted from the drug hydroxylation, oxidation and moieties loss with subsequent cyclization structurally. The retrospective suspected analysis performed on a total of 754 environmental matrices evidenced the environmental occurrence of aliskiren and two TPs in surface waters (river and seawater), fresh water, sediments and biota. In silico bioassays suggested that aliskiren degradation undergoes thought the formation of TPs with distinct toxicity comparing with the parent compound.

Highlights

CECs include pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, hormone disrupting substances, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), etc. (Diamanti et al, 2020; Ebele et al, 2017; Miller et al, 2018; Patel et al, 2019)
We investigated for the first time the photoinduced transformation of aliskiren in aqueous milieu by identifying its transformation products via LC-HRMS
HRMS analyses of river water sample showed that aliskiren, its identified transformation products (TPs) and the known metabolites were below the detection limit

Summary

Introduction

CECs include pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, hormone disrupting substances, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), etc. (Diamanti et al, 2020; Ebele et al, 2017; Miller et al, 2018; Patel et al, 2019). Antihypertensive drugs, including beta-blockers, are pointed as one of the most frequently detected drug classes in the environment (Godoy et al, 2015; Stankiewicz et al, 2015), representing 12% of total therapeutics (Santos et al, 2010) Several studies linked these substances to several disorders such as reduced growth rates, reduction in its heart rate, decreased egg production and reproduction on nontarget organisms such as fish (Japanese medaka, rainbow trout), invertebrates (Dapnia magna, Hyalella azteca, Daphnia lumholtzi, Ceriodaphnia dubia), and green algae (Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata) (Maszkowska et al, 2014; Santos et al, 2010). TPs formation in the natural environment was confirmed by applying a retrospective analysis and their potential toxicity was explored by in-silico studies

Methods

Results

Conclusion