Determination of Hypoglycemic Agents in Surface Water Samples Using SPE-LC-MS/MS Method

Abstract

Antidiabetic compounds are a class of emerging contaminants in environment, for which there are no regulations in the world environmental legislation. These compounds are among the most widely used drugs in the world due to the large number of patients with diabetic conditions. The presence of these pollutants in the environment is insufficiently studied, so efficient analytical methods are needed to allow their detection at trace levels (ng/L). For the simultaneously quantification of the five antidiabetics (glyburide, metformin, glipizide, gliclazide, glimepiride) and one bio-degradation product (guanyl urea) in surface water samples a SPE-LC-MS/MS (solid phase extraction -liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry detection) method was validated using real river water samples. The compounds were separated on C18 LC column in 9 minutes at 300C using a gradient of mobile phase of 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile. Good performance parameters were obtained using the method: low limits of quantification (LOQs 0.1-2.4 ng/L), precision (repeatability 3.5-7.2% and reproducibility 6.5-12.7%) and determination coefficients (higher than 0.99). The most contaminated river was represented by Ialomita, which had a total concentration of antidiabetics of 112.1 ng/L in the downstream point, followed by the Siret and Dambovita rivers, which had a total concentration of antidiabetics of 66.3 ng/L and 57.3 ng/L, respectively, also in the downstream points.

Selected widely prescribed pharmaceuticals: toxicity of the drugs and the products of their photochemical degradation to aquatic organisms

“…Although all of these substances are extensively metabolised in the human body and only small portions of the drugs are excreted unchanged (Brocker et al, 2020;Latini et al, 1984;Talreja and Cassagnol, 2022), they have been repeatedly found in surface waters in concentrations ranging from ng/l to hundreds of ng/l (Batt et al, 2015;de Barros et al, 2018;Iancu et al, 2020;Komesli et al, 2015;Santos et al, 2013).…”