Anticancer drugs drive changes in the performance, abundance, diversity, and composition of eukaryotic communities of an aerobic granular sludge system

Anticancer drugs impact the performance and prokaryotic microbiome of an aerobic granular sludge system operated in a sequential batch reactor

Increased concerns exist about the presence of anticancer drugs in wastewater. However, knowledge of the impacts of anticancer drugs on the performance of the system and microbial communities during wastewater treatment processes is limited. We examined the effect of three anticancer drugs commonly detected in influents of wastewater treatment plants applied at three different concentration levels on the performance, efficiency of anticancer drug removal, and prokaryotic microbiome in an aerobic granular sludge system (AGS) operated in a sequential batch reactor (SBR). We showed that an AGS can efficiently remove anticancer drugs, with removal rates in the range of 53-100% depending on the type of drug and concentration level. Anticancer drugs significantly decreased the abundance of total bacterial and archaeal communities, an effect that was linked to reduced nitrogen removal efficiency. Anticancer drugs also reduced the diversity, altered the prokaryotic community composition, reduced network complexity, and induced a decrease of a wide range of predicted bacterial functions. Specific bacterial taxa responsive to the addition of anticancer drugs with known roles in nitrification and denitrification were identified. This study shows anticancer drugs should be monitored in the future as they can induce changes in the performance and microbiome of wastewater treatment technologies.

Novel insights into the impact of anticancer drugs on the performance and microbial communities of a continuous-flow aerobic granular sludge system

Anticancer drugs are frequently found in domestic wastewater, but knowledge of their impacts on wastewater treatment processes is limited. The effects of three levels of concentrations (low, medium, and high) of three anticancer drugs on physicochemical parameters and prokaryotic communities of a continuous-flow aerobic granular sludge (AGS) system were examined. Drugs at medium and high concentrations reduced the removal of total nitrogen and organic matter during the first 15 days of operation by approximately 15-20 % compared to a control, but these effects disappeared afterward. Removal efficiencies of drugs were in the range of 51.2-100 % depending on the concentration level. Drugs at medium and high concentrations reduced the abundance and diversity and altered the composition of prokaryotic communities. Specific taxa were linked to variations in performance parameters after the addition of the drugs. This study provides improved knowledge of the impacts of anticancer drugs in AGS systems operated in continuous-flow reactor.