Primary degradation of antidiabetic drugs.
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease affecting a large portion of the world population and is treated by orally administered drugs. Since these drugs are often taken in high doses and are excreted unchanged or partially metabolised many of them are nowadays detected in surface waters or wastewater treatment plants effluents. Unmetabolised antidiabetics or some of their transformation products retain their pharmacological activity, therefore their presence in the environment is highly undesired. One of the main routes of elimination from wastewaters or surface waters is biodegradation. Within this work we tested primary biodegradation of: metformin and its metabolite guanylurea, acarbose, glibenclamide, gliclazide and glimepiride. We also inspected what might be the extent of the degradation by examining the products formed during the degradation using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Transformation of diabetes staple drug metformin to dead-end product guanylurea was generally confirmed. An alternative, though rather minor pathway leading to complete mineralisation was also found. Complete primary degradation was observed for acarbose, glibenclamide and glimepiride whereas gliclazide was shown to be resistant to biodegradation. These results allow a preliminary assessment of environmental persistency of a very important group of pharmaceuticals and show need for implementing monitoring programs.
UFT-Centre for Environmental Research and Technology, Sustainable Chemistry Group, University of Bremen, Leobener Straße, D-28359 Bremen, Germany. Electronic address: martam@uni-bremen.de.
Marta
M
Markiewicz
Department of Colloid and Lipid Science, Faculty of Chemistry, Gdańsk University of Technology, ul. Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland.
Christian
C
Jungnickel
UFT-Centre for Environmental Research and Technology, Sustainable Chemistry Group, University of Bremen, Leobener Straße, D-28359 Bremen, Germany; Department of Environmental Analysis, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk, ul. W. Stwosza 63, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland.
Stefan
S
Stolte
Department of Environmental Analysis, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk, ul. W. Stwosza 63, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland.
Anna
A
Białk-Bielińska
Department of Environmental Analysis, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk, ul. W. Stwosza 63, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland.
Jolanta
J
Kumirska
School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Cassie Building, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK; Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Gdańsk, Al. Hallera 107, 80-416 Gdańsk, Poland.
Wojciech
W
Mrozik
D020909:Acarbose / Q000378:metabolism; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D008687:Metformin / Q000378:metabolism*; D014508:Urea / Q000378:metabolism; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000378:metabolism*
D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D014508:Urea; D008687:Metformin; D020909:Acarbose
Antidiabetic drugs; Environmental fate; Pharmaceuticals; Primary biodegradation; Sulphonamides