Recent Advances and Perspectives on the Sources and Detection of Antibiotics in Aquatic Environments

Abstract

Water quality and safety are vital to the ecological environment, social development, and ecological susceptibility. The extensive use and continuous discharge of antibiotics have caused serious water pollution; antibiotics are widely found in freshwater, drinking water, and reservoirs; and this pollution has become a common phenomenon and challenge in global water ecosystems, as water polluted by antibiotics poses serious risks to human health and the ecological environment. Therefore, the antibiotic content in water should be identified, monitored, and eliminated. Nevertheless, there is no single method that can detect all different types of antibiotics, so various techniques are often combined to produce reliable results. This review summarizes the sources of antibiotic pollution in water, covering three main aspects: (1) wastewater discharges from domestic sewage, (2) medical wastewater, and (3) animal physiology and aquaculture. The existing analytical techniques, including extraction techniques, conventional detection methods, and biosensors, are reviewed. The electrochemical biosensors have become a research hotspot in recent years because of their rapid detection, high efficiency, and portability, and the use of nanoparticles contributes to these outstanding qualities. Additionally, the comprehensive quality evaluation of various detection methods, including the linear detection range, detection limit (LOD), and recovery rate, is discussed, and the future of this research field is also prospected.

Ultrasensitive and Green Bubbling Extraction Strategies: An Extensible Solvent-Free Re-Enrichment Approach for Ultratrace Pollutants in Aqueous Samples

“…The LODs of BE strategies were evaluated and are presented in Tables , S2, and S4. Both BE strategies demonstrated very low LODs, which were 6–7 orders of magnitude lower than those achieved by MS alone and 2–3 orders of magnitude lower than those attained by pre-treatment methods in conjunction with MS. − Overall, these results indicate that both BE-CNTPSI-MS and BE-SPME-GC–MS are reliable and accurate methods for analyzing water pollutants in the range of 10–1000 fg/L with good linearity, precision, and accuracy.…”

“…Numerous pre-treatment techniques in conjunction with MS have been devised for the identification of PAHs and antibiotics. These methods are generally designed to identify trace-level concentrations, with LODs ranging from ng/L to μg/L. − The sensitivity of mass spectrometers can be increased by 3–4 orders of magnitude, resulting in a significant descend in the LOD. Nevertheless, detecting and quantifying substances at ultratrace levels, which are 4 orders of magnitude below the LOD of mass spectrometers, presents a considerable challenge using conventional methods or established sample pre-treatment techniques.…”

Physiological responses and antibiotic-degradation capacity of duckweed (Lemna aequinoctialis) exposed to streptomycin

“…The issues of food safety and environmental pollution brought by the excessive use of antibiotics are becoming increasingly alarming, despite the fact that antibiotics play a crucial role in protecting human health and encouraging the growth of animal husbandry ( Ezzariai et al., 2018 ; Anjali and Shanthakumar, 2019 ; Zeng et al., 2022 ). Phytoremediation is an emerging biological technology that aids in the removal of harmful pollutants from water bodies and soil; however, research on phytoremediation requires a comprehensive understanding of processes and mechanisms ( Huang D, et al, 2021 ).…”

“…In recent years, the wide application of antibiotics has caused great risks to water quality, food and ecological safety after being released into the environment ( Kovalakova et al., 2020 ). Various antibiotics have been found in groundwater, and domestic water that has become a challenge in aquatic ecosystems and could pose serious risks to human health ( Jafari Ozumchelouei et al., 2020 ; Zeng et al., 2022 ). Although China’s agricultural sector used less than 30,000 tons of antibiotics between 2014 and 2018 ( Schoenmakers, 2020 ), the overall effects on the aquatic ecosystem requires more research.…”

Design Considerations of an ITO-Coated U-Shaped Fiber Optic LMR Biosensor for the Detection of Antibiotic Ciprofloxacin

“…Citing these purposes, the detection of antibiotic contaminants in water has drawn considerable interest from researchers in the past few years [ 9 , 10 ]. There have been numerous instrumental methods and techniques developed so far for the detection of antibiotics, such as radioimmunoassay [ 11 ], capillary electrophoresis [ 12 ], liquid chromatography [ 13 ], ion mobility spectroscopy [ 14 ], mass spectrometry [ 15 ], Raman spectroscopy [ 16 ], and many more [ 17 , 18 ]. However, these techniques generally need skilled operators and complex laboratory equipment, which are time-consuming and a bit expensive.…”