Abstract
The presence of pharmaceuticals, which are considered as contaminants of emerging concern, in natural waters is currently recognized as a widespread problem. Monitoring these contaminants in the environment has been an important field of research since their presence can affect the ecosystems even at very low levels. Several analytical techniques have been developed to detect and quantify trace concentrations of these contaminants in the aquatic environment, namely high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, and capillary electrophoresis, usually coupled to different types of detectors, which need to be complemented with time-consuming and costly sample cleaning and pre-concentration procedures. Generally, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), as other immunoassay methodologies, is mostly used in biological samples (most frequently urine and blood). However, during the last years, the number of studies referring the use of ELISA for the analysis of pharmaceuticals in complex environmental samples has been growing. Therefore, this work aims to present an overview of the application of ELISA for screening and quantification of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment, namely in water samples and biological tissues. The experimental procedures together with the main advantages and limitations of the assay are addressed, as well as new incomes related with the application of molecular imprinted polymers to mimic antibodies in similar, but alternative, approaches. Graphical Abstract.
Highlights
Mimicking antibodies with Molecular Imprinted Polymers: a possible strategy to foster the use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the environmental monitoring of pharmaceuticals? 5
Conventional chromatographic techniques are commonly used for this purpose, namely, gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) [23,24,25,26,27,28], and several reviews on the subject appear in the scientific literature [15, 29,30,31,32]
ELISA, which is frequently used in clinical analyses, has been considered as an alternative to conventional chromatography-based techniques for the environmental monitoring of pollutants
Summary
The low concentrations of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment implies the need for techniques with adequate sensitivity for its monitoring In this context, conventional chromatographic techniques are commonly used for this purpose, namely, gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) [23,24,25,26,27,28], and several reviews on the subject appear in the scientific literature [15, 29,30,31,32]. All this combined involve very high costs in what concerns the analysis itself, and the specialized technicians needed to operate such instruments and analyse the resulting data [41]
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