Mycoremediation of azole antifungal agents using in vitro cultures of Lentinula edodes

Antifungal drugs in the aquatic environment: A review on sources, occurrence, toxicity, health effects, removal strategies and future challenges

Fungal infections pose a significant global health burden, resulting in millions of severe cases and deaths annually. The escalating demand for effective antifungal treatments has led to a rise in the wholesale distribution of antifungal drugs, which consequently has led to their release into the environment, posing a threat to ecosystems and human health. This article aims to provide a comprehensive review of the presence and distribution of antifungal drugs in the environment, evaluate their potential ecological and health risks, and assess current methods for their removal. Reviewed studies from 2010 to 2023 period have revealed the widespread occurrence of 19 various antifungals in natural waters and other matrices at alarmingly high concentrations. Due to the inefficiency of conventional water treatment in removing these compounds, advanced oxidation processes, membrane filtration, and adsorption techniques have been developed as promising decontamination methods.In conclusion, this review emphasizes the urgent need for a comprehensive understanding of the presence, fate, and removal of antifungal drugs in the environment. By addressing the current knowledge gaps and exploring future prospects, this study contributes to the development of strategies for mitigating the environmental impact of antifungal drugs and protecting ecosystems and human health.

Fungal bioremediation approaches for the removal of toxic pollutants: Mechanistic understanding for biorefinery applications

Pollution is a global menace that poses harmful effects on all the living ecosystems and to the Earth. As years pass by, the available and the looming rate of pollutants increases at a faster rate. Although many treatments and processing strategies are waged for treating such pollutants, the by-products and the wastes or drain off generated by these treatments further engages in the emission of hazardous waste. Innovative and long-lasting solutions are required to address the urgent global issue of hazardous pollutant remediation from contaminated environments. Myco-remediation is a top-down green and eco-friendly tool for pollution management. It is a cost-effective and safer practice of converting pernicious substances into non-toxic forms by the use of fungi. But these pollutants can be transformed into useable products along with multiple benefits for the environment such as sequestration of carbon emissions and also to generate high valuable bioactive materials that fits as a sustainable economic model. The current study has examined the possible applications of fungi in biorefineries and their critical role in the transformation and detoxification of pollutants. The paper offers important insights into using fungal bioremediation for both economically and environmentally sound solutions in the domain of biorefinery applications by combining recent research findings.

Exploring eco-friendly approaches for mitigating pharmaceutical and personal care products in aquatic ecosystems: A sustainability assessment

Global water scarcity is exacerbated by climate change, population growth, and water pollution. Over half of the world's population will be affected by water shortages for at least a month annually by 2050 due toa lack of clean water sources. Even though recycling wastewater helps meet the growing demand, new pollutants, including pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), pose a health threat since conventional methods cannot remove them and their environmental monitoring regulations are yet in place. Therefore, the current review aims to investigate and propose eco-friendly technologies for removing PPCPs from wastewater and their implementation strategies for ecosystem safety. Findings indicated the absence of a single wastewater treatment technology that can remove all PPCPs in a single operation. Instead, biotechnological methods are one of the alternatives that can remove PPCPs from aquatic environments. In this context, community involvement and knowledge transfer are identified keys to clean water resources' long-term sustainability.

Pharmaceutical Pollution in Aquatic Environments: A Concise Review of Environmental Impacts and Bioremediation Systems

The presence of emerging contaminants in the environment, such as pharmaceuticals, is a growing global concern. The excessive use of medication globally, together with the recalcitrance of pharmaceuticals in traditional wastewater treatment systems, has caused these compounds to present a severe environmental problem. In recent years, the increase in their availability, access and use of drugs has caused concentrations in water bodies to rise substantially. Considered as emerging contaminants, pharmaceuticals represent a challenge in the field of environmental remediation; therefore, alternative add-on systems for traditional wastewater treatment plants are continuously being developed to mitigate their impact and reduce their effects on the environment and human health. In this review, we describe the current status and impact of pharmaceutical compounds as emerging contaminants, focusing on their presence in water bodies, and analyzing the development of bioremediation systems, especially mycoremediation, for the removal of these pharmaceutical compounds with a special focus on fungal technologies.

Recent Progress and Prospects in Catalytic Water Treatment

Presently, conventional technologies in water treatment are not efficient enough to completely mineralize refractory water contaminants. In this context, the implementation of catalytic processes could be an alternative. Despite the advantages provided in terms of kinetics of transformation, selectivity, and energy saving, numerous attempts have not yet led to implementation at an industrial scale. This review examines investigations at different scales for which controversies and limitations must be solved to bridge the gap between fundamentals and practical developments. Particular attention has been paid to the development of solar-driven catalytic technologies and some other emerging processes, such as microwave assisted catalysis, plasma-catalytic processes, or biocatalytic remediation, taking into account their specific advantages and the drawbacks. Challenges for which a better understanding related to the complexity of the systems and the coexistence of various solid-liquid-gas interfaces have been identified.

Mycoremediation: Expunging environmental pollutants

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Mycoremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, challenges, and strategies to overcome.

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Role of the fungi in eradicating heavy metal contamination from the polluted sites.

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Mycoremediation of agricultural wastes including pesticides, herbicides, and cyanotoxins.

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Pharmaceutical wastes and strategies for its remediation using white-rot and ligninolytic fungus.

The ever-increasing population, rapid rate of urbanization, and industrialization are exacerbating the pollution-related problems. Soil and water pollution affect human health and the ecosystem. Thus, it is crucial to develop strategies to combat this ever-growing problem. Mycoremediation, employing fungi or its derivatives for remediation of environmental pollutants, is a comparatively cost-effective, eco-friendly, and effective method. It has advantages over other conventional and bioremediation methods. In this review, we have elucidated the harmful effects of common pollutants on public health and the environment. The role of several fungi in degrading these pollutants such as heavy metals, agricultural, pharmaceutical wastes, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, is enumerated. Future strategies to improve the rate and efficiency of mycoremediation are suggested. The manuscript describes the strategies which can be used as a future framework to address the global problem of pollution.

Fruiting bodies of selected edible mushrooms as a potential source of lovastatin

Agaricus bisporus, Cantharellus cibarius, Imleria badia, and Lentinula edodes are among the most popular species of edible mushrooms in Poland. These edible mushrooms are an important source of biologically active substances exhibiting beneficial (e.g., antioxidant, antitumor, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory) effects on the human body. The fruiting bodies of edible mushrooms are also a valuable source of lovastatin, which belongs to a group of compounds, called statins, commonly used as cholesterol-lowering drugs. Due to the presence of lovastatin, edible mushrooms can be useful in the prevention of hypercholesterolemia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the content of lovastatin in the selected species of edible mushrooms and to evaluate its release into artificial digestive juices. This study was the first to determine the release of lovastatin into digestive juices after the extraction of materials obtained from edible mushrooms. The largest amount of lovastatin was found in the fruiting bodies of C. cibarius (67.89 mg/100 g d.w.), and the smallest in those of L. edodes (0.95 mg/100 g d.w.). The amount of lovastatin released from the extracts of the examined species into digestive juices was found to be relatively low. The highest content after incubation in artificial gastric juice was detected for the fruiting bodies of L. edodes (0.02 mg/100 g d.w.) and after incubation in the intestinal juice for the mycelium from the in vitro cultures of L. edodes (0.51 mg/100 g d.w.). Thus, the results of the present study showed that due to its ability to accumulate lovastatin from culture medium, L. edodes mycelium can be used to obtain a product with increased hypolipidemic activity.

Occurrence and risk assessment of azole antifungal drugs in water and wastewater

The occurrence of azole antifungals in the environment presents one of the emerging concerns due to their ecotoxicological threat as well as their potential contribution to the evolution of drug resistant fungi in the environment. In this study, the occurrence of eight commonly prescribed azole antifungal drugs was seasonally determined in influent and effluent water samples from three wastewater treatment plants and a drinking water treatment plant in South Africa. In addition, the risk quotient (RQ) method was employed to investigate the potential ecological and human health risks associated with their presence in the wastewater and/or drinking water. Clotrimazole, econazole, fluconazole, itraconazole, ketoconazole and miconazole were detected at least once in the water samples, while posaconazole and voriconazole were not detected in any of the samples for all seasons at which the samples were collected. Fluconazole was detected at higher frequency (about 96%) with a concentration up to 9959.0 ng L^-1. Clotrimazole had the second highest frequency of detection (about 33%) with a concentration up to 143.3 ng L^-1. Statistically significant temporal variation in clotrimazole (p < 0.05) and spatial variation in fluconazole (p < 0.05) were observed. In general, the preliminary ecological risk assessment based on risk quotient (RQ) calculation indicated that there is currently no high risk against aquatic organisms (Algae, Daphnia and Fish) related to the azole antifungals. Meanwhile, human health risk assessment demonstrated that fluconazole represented high risk in drinking water. Furthermore, risk estimates showed a potential for the detected concentrations of fluconazole and itraconazole in water samples to pose moderate to high risk for development of antifungal drug resistance. Some of the azole antifungal drugs are ubiquitous in the wastewater and future monitoring and validation studies should be conducted for those drugs that seem to pose human health and ecological risks.