Removal of two cytostatic drugs: bleomycin and vincristine by white-rot fungi \u2013 a sorption study

Marcelina Jureczko,Wioletta Przystaś

doi:10.1007/s40201-021-00635-8

Abstract

PurposeCytostatic drugs cannot be easily removed by conventional sewage treatment plants, resulting in their ultimate release into aquatic systems where they become a threat. Thus, new technologies which can be used to eliminate these drugs more effectively before they enter the environment are increasingly important. Fungal treatment of wastewaters is a promising and environmentally friendly technology for pharmaceutical remediation. The aim of this work is to examine the biosorption of two cytostatics, bleomycin and vincristine, in the aqueous solution by fungal biomass.MethodsFive white-rot fungi were used in this study: Fomes fomentarius (CB13), Hypholoma fasciculare (CB15), Phyllotopsis nidulans (CB14), Pleurotus ostreatus (BWPH), and Trametes versicolor (CB8). Tests were conducted on different types of biomass (alive and dead – autoclaved) and in various physico-chemical conditions: varied drug concentrations (5, 10 and 15 mg/L), temperatures (from 15.4 to 29.6 °C), and pH (from 3.2 to 8.8).ResultsThe results showed that among alive biomass, T. versicolor (CB8) had the greatest sorption ability for bleomycin and P. nidulans (CB14) worked best for vincristine. The tested sorption process could be described by a pseudo-second order kinetics model. Sorption equilibrium studies demonstrated that for bleomycin Redlich-Peterson, while for vincristine Langmuir model fitted best. The thermodynamic studies showed that the sorption process was endothermic chemisorption for bleomycin, and exothermic physisorption for vincristine. For both drugs the sorption ability increased with an increase of the pH value.ConclusionThe biosorption on fungal biomass is a favorable alternative to conventional wastewater treatment processes for anticancer drug removal.

Highlights

The consumption of pharmacologically active compounds (PhACs) has been steadily increasing, reaching thousands of tons annually [9, 25, 35]
Did we focus on two strains of the most promising fungal species, Trametes versicolor and Pleurotus ostreatus, for which good PhACs removal values had already been confirmed, but we sought to find new candidates by analysing the cytostatics sorption removal efficiency of Fomes fomentarius, Hypholoma fasciculare, and Phyllotopsis nidulans
Because cytostatics might pose a risk to the environment and are not significantly removed during wastewater treatment, research on their effective elimination from the environment was necessary

Summary

Introduction

The consumption of pharmacologically active compounds (PhACs) has been steadily increasing, reaching thousands of tons annually [9, 25, 35] Many of these chemicals cannot be removed by conventional sewage treatment plants (STPs) due to their hydrophilic character,. The biodegradation mechanisms of living cells is of high importance, the contribution of sorption to the overall elimination of pharmaceuticals by fungi cannot be neglected [4, 24, 34, 35, 39] This physico-chemical process is competitive, effective, energy-independent, fast, reversible, and can be conducted both on activated and inactivated biomass [24, 34, 35, 39, 54]. Importantly, the formation of harmful substances is not the result of the sorption process [54]

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Results