Enhanced fluorescence sensitivity by coupling yttrium-analyte complexes and three-way fast high-performance liquid chromatography data modeling

Removal of enrofloxacin using Eichhornia crassipes in microcosm wetlands

The global consumption of antibiotics leads to their possible occurrence in the environment. In this context, nature-based solutions (NBS) can be used to sustainably manage and restore natural and modified ecosystems. In this work, we studied the efficiency of the NBS free-water surface wetlands (FWSWs) using Eichhornia crassipes in microcosm for enrofloxacin removal. We also explored the behavior of enrofloxacin in the system, its accumulation and distribution in plant tissues, the detoxification mechanisms, and the possible effects on plant growth. Enrofloxacin was initially taken up by E. crassipes (first 100 h). Notably, it accumulated in the sediment at the end of the experimental time. Removal rates above 94% were obtained in systems with sediment and sediment + E. crassipes. In addition, enrofloxacin was found in leaves, petioles, and roots (8.8-23.6 µg, 11-78.3 µg, and 10.2-70.7 µg, respectively). Furthermore, enrofloxacin, the main degradation product (ciprofloxacin), and other degradation products were quantified in the tissues and chlorosis was observed on days 5 and 9. Finally, the degradation products of enrofloxacin were analyzed, and four possible metabolic pathways of enrofloxacin in E. crassipes were described.

Determination of residual enrofloxacin in eggs due to long term administration to laying hens. Analysis of the consumer exposure assessment to egg derivatives

The use of the antibiotic enrofloxacin (ENR) in poultry is controversial. A high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to fast-scanning fluorescence detection (HPLC-FSFD) method for the determination of ENR in egg white, egg yolk, and lyophilized samples was developed. In a first analysis, the long-term administration of ENR (100 days) to laying hens was carried out to determine its presence in egg white, yolk, or both. The predominance of ENR was observed in egg white and variations in the weight of egg white and eggshell was evidenced, showing a potential problem in the industry. Eventually, the presence of ENR was confirmed in commercial lyophilized egg white samples in concentration values around 350 µg kg^-1. The consumer exposure assessment was estimated for children, adolescents, and adults. The result displayed that, in an intake of lyophilized egg white with food-producing animals, the %ADI exceeds 100%, showing toxicological levels.

Distribution of antibiotics in water, sediments and biofilm in an urban river (Córdoba, Argentina, LA)

In this study, we evaluated the distribution of up to forty-three antibiotics and 4 metabolites residues in different environmental compartments of an urban river receiving both diffuse and point sources of pollution. This is the first study to assess the fate of different antibiotic families in water, biofilms and sediments simultaneously under a real urban river scenario. Solid phase extraction, bead-beating disruption and pressurized liquid extraction were applied for sample preparation of water, biofilm and sediment respectively, followed by the quantification of target antibiotics by UPLC-ESI-MS/MS. Twelve antibiotics belonging to eight chemical families were detected in Suquía River samples (67% positive samples). Sites downstream the WWTP discharge were the most polluted ones. Concentrations of positive samples ranged 0.003-0.29 µg L^-1 in water (max. cephalexin), 2-652 µg kg^-1_d.w. in biofilm (max. ciprofloxacin) and 2-34 µg kg^-1_d.w. in sediment (max. ofloxacin). Fluoroquinolones, macrolides and trimethoprim were the most frequently detected antibiotics in the three compartments. However cephalexin was the prevalent antibiotic in water. Antibiotics exhibited preference for their accumulation from water into biofilms rather than in sediments (bioaccumulation factors > 1,000 L kg^-1_d.w. in biofilms, while pseudo-partition coefficients in sediments < 1,000 L kg^-1_d.w.). Downstream the WWTP there was an association of antibiotics levels in biofilms with ash-free dry weight, opposite to chlorophyll-a (indicative of heterotrophic communities). Cephalexin and clarithromycin in river water were found to pose high risk for the aquatic ecosystem, while ciprofloxacin presented high risk for development of antimicrobial resistance. This study contributes to the understanding of the fate and distribution of antibiotic pollution in urban rivers, reveals biofilm accumulation as an important environmental fate, and calls for attention to government authorities to manage identified highly risk antibiotics.

Exploring the potential of combining chemometric approaches to model non-linear multi-way data with quantitative purposes - A case study

Second-order based calibration methods have been widely investigated capitalizing on the inherent benefits of the data structure and the decomposition models, demonstrating that second-order advantage is a property that conspires to a high likelihood success in the resolution of systems of varying complexity. This work aims to demonstrate the applicability of a combined chemometric strategy to solve non-linear multivariate calibration systems in the presence of non-multilinear multi-way data. The determination of histamine by differential pulse voltammetry at different pH is presented as case study. The experimental system has the outstanding difficulty arisen from the large displacement along the potential axis by the pH, which was successfully overcome by implementation of the presented combined strategy. For data modeling, MCR-ALS, U-PLS/RBL and U-PCA/RBL-RBF were used. MCR-ALS allowed unraveling the non-linear behavior between the signal and the concentration, and extracting the underlying profiles of the constituent. Quantitative analysis was performed through the three models, and a comparative evaluation of the predictive performance was done. The best results were achieved with U-PCA/RBL-RBF (mean recovery = 101%) whereas, MCR-ALS yield the lowest mean recovery for all samples (70%).

Occurrence, Distribution, and Ecological Risk of Fluoroquinolones in Rivers and Wastewaters

The use of fluoroquinolones for the treatment of infections in humans and animals has increased in Argentina, and they can be found in large amounts in water bodies. The present study investigated the occurrence and associated ecological risk of 5 fluoroquinolones in rivers and farm wastewaters of San Luis, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Entre Ríos, and Buenos Aires provinces of Argentina by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to fast-scanning fluorescence detection and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole mass spectrometry detection. The maximum concentrations of ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, ofloxacin, enoxacin, and difloxacin found in wastewater were 1.14, 11.9, 1.78, 22.1, and 14.2 μg L^-1 , respectively. In the case of river samples, only enrofloxacin was found, at a concentration of 0.97 μg L^-1 . The individual risk of aquatic organisms associated with water pollution due to fluoroquinolones was higher in bacteria, cyanobacteria, algae, plants, and anurans than in crustaceae and fish, with, in some cases, risk quotients >1. The proportion of samples classified as high risk was 87.5% for ofloxacin, 63.5% for enrofloxacin, 57.1% for ciprofloxacin, and 25% for enoxacin. Our results suggest that the prevalence of fluoroquinolones in water could be potentially risky for the aquatic ecosystem, and harmful to biodiversity. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:2305-2313. © 2019 SETAC.

Simultaneous determination of carbendazim and chlorothalonil pesticide residues in peanut oil using excitation-emission matrix fluorescence coupled with three-way calibration method

A novel fluorescence application for simultaneous determination of two common fungicide pesticides (carbendazim and chlorothalonil) in peanut oil is presented. Using the strategy of combining excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence with three-way calibration methods, the proposed approach successfully achieved quantitative analysis of carbendazim and chlorothalonil pesticide residues in peanut oil, even with highly overlapped spectra. It needs little preparation, using "mathematical separation" instead of "analytical separation" to achieve concentration prediction of target analytes in complex systems. Each analyte was performed using fluorescence spectroscopy after instrument spectral correction and scatter removal. Then the data were modeled with two three-way calibration algorithms, including alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) and alternating penalty trilinear decomposition (APTLD). The results indicated that APTLD performed slightly better than ATLD for this system. The carbendazim and chlorothalonil can be recognized simultaneously with the correlation coefficients all above 0.96 between resolved spectra and actual spectra. Satisfactory results have been achieved with the average recoveries (mean ± standard deviation) of carbendazim and chlorothalonil being 100.2 ± 6.7% and 99.7 ± 6.7%, respectively. Moreover, as for carbendazim and chlorothalonil, the sensitivity (SENs) are 1.50 × 10² and 3.80 × 10² mL ng^-1, the limits of detection (LODs) are 11 ng mL^-1 and 4.3 ng mL^-1, the limit of quantitation (LOQ) are 33.33 ng mL^-1 and 13.03 ng mL^-1, respectively. The above results demonstrated that the proposed method is sensitive, fast and accurate for direct quantitative analysis of multiple pesticide residues in complex matrix such as that of peanut oil.

Use of phenyl/tetrazolyl-functionalized magnetic microspheres and stable isotope labeled internal standards for significant reduction of matrix effect in determination of nine fluoroquinolones by liquid chromatography-quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometry

In this study, the strategy of unique adsorbent combined with isotope labeled internal standards was used to significantly reduce the matrix effect for the enrichment and analysis of nine fluoroquinolones in a complex sample by liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometry (LC-QqQ_LIT-MS/MS). The adsorbent was prepared conveniently by functionalizing Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ microspheres with phenyl and tetrazolyl groups, which could adsorb fluoroquinolones selectively via hydrophobic, electrostatic, and π-π interactions. The established magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) method as well as using stable isotope labeled internal standards in the next MS/MS detection was able to reduce the matrix effect significantly. In the process of LC-QqQ_LIT-MS/MS analysis, the precursor and product ions of the analytes were monitored quantitatively and qualitatively on a QTrap system equipped simultaneously with the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) and enhanced product ion (EPI) scan. Subsequently, the enrichment method combined with LC-QqQ_LIT-MS/MS demonstrated good analytical features in terms of linearity (7.5-100.0 ng mL^-1, r > 0.9960), satisfactory recoveries (88.6%-118.3%) with RSDs < 12.0%, LODs = 0.5 μg kg^-1 and LOQs = 1.5 μg kg^-1 for all tested analytes. Finally, the developed MSPE-LC-QqQ_LIT-MS/MS method had been successfully applied to real pork samples for food-safety risk monitoring in Ningxia Province, China. Graphical abstract Mechanism of reducing matrix effect through the as-prepared adsorbent.

A road map for multi-way calibration models

A road map is proposed for the selection of a multi-way calibration model according to the data properties.