Removal of antibiotic resistance genes from wastewater using diethylaminoethyl cellulose as a promising adsorbent

Abstract

The implications associated with the emergence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are dangerous, and there is an urgent need for their effective removal from the environment. The current study is a comprehensive evaluation of the potential of diethylaminoethyl cellulose (DEAE-C) to target the adsorptive removal of ARGs using a template DNA under different working conditions like varying adsorbate concentrations, time, working pH, coexisting anions and real waste water matrix. The obtained results exhibited excellent adsorption efficiency of DEAE-C with high Langmuir maximum adsorption capacity of 65.40 μg/mg at pH 7 ± 0.5. The adsorption process was majorly governed by the electrostatic force of attraction. Desorption study was performed for the adsorbent reusability. Maximum desorption was attained at pH 8 ± 0.5 using 2 ml 0.5 M NaCl. The adsorbent exhibited great recyclability up to 10 regeneration cycles without any significant loss in its performance. Finally the adsorbent tested in real wastewater matrix for real ARGs and mobile genetic elements selected on the basis of size and abundance namely 16srRNA gene, bla CTXM, and int 1 exhibited high adsorption ability. Almost 4–4.45 log gene copies reduction of studied ARGs was achieved in real wastewater matrix. Overall the DEAE-C was observed to be an excellent adsorbent material to target the efficient removal of antibiotic resistance genes from wastewater. Moreover the present study will help and give a perspective to the scientific community to develop an efficient, practical and appropriate technology to target the removal of ARGs from wastewater.