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Prioritization and identification of bioactive wastewater contaminants by coupling effects-based monitoring and high-resolution mass spectrometry
Citation:
Blackwell, B., J. Cavallin, R. Hofer, AND Dan Villeneuve. Prioritization and identification of bioactive wastewater contaminants by coupling effects-based monitoring and high-resolution mass spectrometry. SETAC North America 42nd Annual meeting, Portland, OR, November 14 - 18, 2021. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.17113886
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation to the SETAC North America 42nd Annual Meeting November 2021. Effects-based monitoring identifies biological activity in the environment but alone does not provide information about the chemical identity causing bioactivity. High resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) methods can be used to help identify individual chemical contaminants that are causing biological activity. A case study of a wastewater treatment infrastructure upgrade monitored estrogen receptor (ER), glucocorticoid receptor (GR), and peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARg) activity in the Colorado River. Biological activity was significantly decreased after infrastructure upgrades. High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) was used to attempt to further identify the specific chemicals inducing bioactivity in these samples. The results show the positive impact of wastewater infrastructure upgrades on contaminant removal and present a potential workflow for identification of biologically active contaminants using HRMS.
Description:
Effects-based monitoring uses biological pathway-based tools to identify biological activity (e.g., estrogen receptor (ER) activation), providing a complement to chemical analysis in environmental monitoring. While effects-based approaches are a valuable tool for environmental monitoring, these approaches alone cannot explicitly identify the contaminants inducing biological activity. For example, as part of a case study that monitored bioactive contaminants in surface waters along the Colorado River near Moab, UT, before and after upgrades to wastewater treatment infrastructure, water samples were screened for in vitro biological activities and a targeted list of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, and steroid hormones. The most prominent bioactivities observed in the river system were ER, glucocorticoid receptor (GR), and peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARg)-related activity, with PPARg activation occurring less frequently and at a lower relative concentration. Targeted chemical measurements could adequately explain ER-related bioactivity, but not GR or PPARg. To further investigate and potentially identify unknown contaminants contributing to GR- and PPARg-mediated biological activity, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS)-based methods were applied to the same water samples. HRMS analysis of extracts previously shown to induce biological activity was performed using a Thermo ID-X LC-MS system with electrospray ionization. Wastewater treatment infrastructure upgrades significantly reduced bioactivity in receiving waters. Likewise, unknown compounds detected through HRMS methods decreased following infrastructure upgrades. These findings highlight the potential application of bioactivity-focused methods along with HRMS for unknown environmental contaminant identification. The contents of this abstract neither constitute nor necessarily reflect US EPA policy.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Prioritization and identification of bioactive wastewater contaminants by coupling effects-based monitoring and high-resolution mass spectrometry
BLACKWELL_SETAC NA_211022.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 4909.098 KB, about PDF)