title: Biodegradability of the anticancer drug etoposide and identification of the transformation products.
abstract: Etoposide susceptibility to microbiological breakdown was studied in a batch biotransformation system, in the presence or absence of artificial wastewater containing nutrients, salts and activated sludge at two concentration levels. The primary focus of the present study was to study etoposide transformation products by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution hybrid quadrupole-Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Data-dependent experiments combining full-scan MS data with product ion spectra were acquired to identify the molecular ions of etoposide transformation products, to propose the molecular formulae and to elucidate their chemical structures. Due to the complexity of the matrix, visual inspection of the chromatograms showed no clear differences between the controls and the treated samples. Therefore, the software package MZmine was used to facilitate the identification of the transformation products and speed up the data analysis. In total, we propose five transformation products; among them, four are described as etoposide transformation products for the first time. Even though the chemical structures of these new compounds cannot be confirmed due to the lack of standards, their molecular formulae can be used to target them in monitoring studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, Ljubljana, Slovenia. tina.kosjek@ijs.si.|Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Jamova 39, Ljubljana, Slovenia. tina.kosjek@ijs.si.
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kosjek
authors.affiliation: Water and Soil Quality Research Group, Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), Jordi Girona 18-26, E-08034, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Noelia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Negreira
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, Ljubljana, Slovenia.|Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Jamova 39, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Ester
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Heath
authors.affiliation: Water and Soil Quality Research Group, Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), Jordi Girona 18-26, E-08034, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Miren López
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: de Alda
authors.affiliation: Water and Soil Quality Research Group, Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), Jordi Girona 18-26, E-08034, Barcelona, Spain.|Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), H2O Building, Scientific and Technological Park of the University of Girona, Emili Grahit 101, 17003, Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: Damià
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barceló
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005047:Etoposide / Q000378:metabolism*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D062065:Wastewater / Q000032:analysis*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D005047:Etoposide; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Biodegradation; Etoposide; Mass spectrometry; Orbitrap; Transformation; Transformation product; Wastewater