Antiviral drug Umifenovir (Arbidol) in municipal wastewater during the COVID-19 pandemic: Estimated levels and transformation

Abstract

An indole derivative umifenovir (Arbidol) is one of the most widely used antiviral drugs for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and some other viral infections. The purpose of the present study was to shed light on the transformation processes of umifenovir in municipal wastewater, including disinfection with active chlorine, as well as to assess the levels of the antiviral drug and its metabolites entering and accumulating in natural reservoirs under conditions of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The combination of high-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization high-resolution mass-spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used for tentative identification and quantification of umifenovir and its transformation products in model reaction mixtures and real samples of wastewater, river water, biological sludge and bottom sediments taken at the wastewater treatment plant in Arkhangelsk, a large cultural and industrial center at the Russian North. Laboratory experiments allowed identifying fifteen bromine-containing transformation products, forming at the initial stages of the chlorination and fourteen classic volatile and semi volatile disinfection by-products with bromoform as the dominant one. Chlorinated derivatives are only the minor disinfection by-products forming by substitution of alkylamine group in the aromatic ring. The schemes of umifenovir transformation in reactions with dissolved oxygen and sodium hypochlorite are proposed. Two established primary transformation products formed by oxidation of the thioether group to sulfoxide and elimination of thiophenol were detected in noticeable concentrations in the wastewater together with their precursor. The level of umifenovir reached 1.3 mg kg −1 in the sludge and municipal wastewater treat contained 1 μg L −1 of that drug, while its removal during biological wastewater treatment was about 40%. Pronounced accumulation of umifenovir and its transformation products in biological sludge and bottom sediments of natural reservoirs may be a source of the future secondary pollution of the environment.

Development and applications of diffusive gradients in thin films for monitoring pharmaceuticals in surface waters

“…The concentrations of ritonavir and lopinavir were much lower than those in the receiving rivers of Guangdong, China ( Yao et al, 2021 ). The arbidol concentration levels were similar to that reported for the Khatoritsa River, Russia ( Ul'yanovskii et al, 2022 ). Due to the poor removal efficiency of the three antiviral drugs in WWTPs ( Ul'yanovskii et al, 2022 ; Yao et al, 2021 ), the manifold increase in their emission requires further investigation.…”

“… Yao et al (2021) and Kumari and Kumar (2022) validated the high ecological risks to the aquatic environment caused by ritonavir and lopinavir. Ul'yanovskii et al (2022) found a pronounced accumulation of arbidol in river bottom sediments, which could be a source of secondary pollution. The impacts of the pharmaceuticals used for COVID-19 treatment on the aquatic environment are of increasing concern and merit further investigation ( Bandala et al, 2021 ).…”

Covid-19 and Municipal Solid Waste Management

“…Some of the journals that published papers on the first query have more than one paper. Indeed, Science of the Total Environment dedicated a special issue on SARS-CoV-2 and collected 15 papers [1], [4], [5], [10], [16], [24], [25], [31]- [33], [36], [43], [63], [83], [84]. The other two journals that attracted papers connected with the first query are Resources, Conservation and Recycling [81], [82], [85], [86], [102] and Environmental Science and Pollution Research [14], [21], [27], [44], [48], each of them having five papers published.…”

Environmental impacts of the widespread use of chlorine-based disinfectants during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Since the outbreak of the pandemic, elevated consumption of umifenovir (an antiviral drug) has led to its presence at 1 µg/L in municipal wastewater. This drug forms a wide range of DBPs when it reacts with sodium hypochlorite, most of them being Br-DBPs with bromoform as the dominant species (Ul’yanovskii et al, 2022 ). It is well known that the consumption of various antibiotics and other life-saving medicines has been rising during the pandemic; these compounds will eventually end up in the WWTPs and waterbodies (Goel 2015 ).…”