10 documents found, page 1 of 1
Butylone enantioseparation and ecotoxicity evaluation on Daphnia magna
Carvalho, A. R.; Morão, A. M.; Gonçalves, V. M. F.; Tiritan, M. E.; Lado, A. R.; Carrola, J. S.; Amorim, M. M.; Ribeiro, C.Background: The synthetic drug butylone (2-methylamino-1-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)butan-1-one, BTL) is a chiral cathinone consumed in the form of racemate [1]. After consumption, BTL is metabolized and excreted along with its metabolites, and its residues are carried by sewerage systems to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) [2]. Both human metabolism and biodegradation in WWTPs may be enantioselective causing...
MDA effects on morphophysiology and reproduction of Daphnia magna – preliminary...
Morão, A. M.; Carvalho, A. R.; Couto, C.; Carrola, J. S.; Costa, P.; Castro, B.; Tiritan, M. E.; Ribeiro, C.Background: Psychoactive substances and their metabolites are considered emergent contaminants, raising environmental concerns due to the continuous input into aquatic ecosystems [1]. MDA (3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine) is a pharmacologically active substance that represents the major metabolite of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA); MDA may be present in MDMA preparations or occur as an illegal psychoact...
Enantiomeric profiling and drug consumption estimation
Langa, I.; Ribeiro, A. R. L.; Ratola, N.; Gonçalves, V. M. F.; Tiritan, M. E.; Ribeiro, C.Background: Recent trends in new psychoactive substances (NPS) abuse have raised a serious public health issue that affects all communities. NPS comprise a wide range of substances, such as synthetic cathinones, synthetic cannabinoids, opioids, and benzodiazepines [1, 2]. These substances end up in the environment as excretion products or by direct disposal [3]. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) combined with...
Microfluidic mixing system for precise PLGA-PEG nanoparticles size control
Gimondi, Sara; Guimarães, Carlos F.; Vieira, Sara Filipa Fontoura; Gonçalves, Virgínia M. F.; Tiritan, M. E.; Reis, R. L.In this study, a microfluidic device was employed to produce polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) with well-controlled sizes. The influence of several parameters in the synthesis process, namely, polymer concentration, flow rate and flow rate ratio between the aqueous and organic solutions was investigated. To evaluate the NPs size effect, three diameters were selected (30, 50 and 70 nm). Their cytocompatibility was d...
Erythrocyte-derived liposomes for the treatment of inflammatory diseases
Olival, Ana Sofia Martins; Vieira, Sara Filipa Fontoura; Gonçalves, V. M. F.; Cunha, C.; Tiritan, M. E.; Carvalho, A.; Reis, R. L.Effective and safe therapies to counteract persistent inflammation are necessary. We developed erythrocyte-derived liposomes (EDLs) with intrinsic anti-inflammatory activity. The EDLs were prepared using lipids extracted from erythrocyte membranes, which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids with several health benefits. Diclofenac, a widely used anti-inflammatory drug, was incorporated into EDLs in relevant therapeu...
Sardine roe as a source of lipids to produce liposomes
Guedes, M.; Costa-Pinto, A. R.; Gonçalves, V. M. F.; Moreira-Silva, J.; Tiritan, M. E.; Reis, R. L.; Ferreira, H.; Neves, N. M.Sea-derived materials have promising applications in the medical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological fields. Fish roe, for example, is a highly nutritional product, presenting diverse beneficial effects on human health. Therefore, this work explored extracts of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) roe, due to the well-known health benefits of this fish, to produce novel and promising delivery systems. After morpholog...
Enrichment of bacterial strains for the biodegradation of diclofenac and carbam...
Bessa, V. S.; Moreira, I. S.; Tiritan, M. E.; Castro, P. M. L.Carbamazepine and diclofenac have been pointed out as important markers for environmental pollution by pharmaceuticals. This study reports on the isolation of bacterial strains capable to degrade these micropollutants from activated sludge of a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). After selective enrichments, one strain able to degrade diclofenac and two strains able to degrade carbamazepine were isolat...
Integrated liquid chromatography method in enantioselective studies: biodegrada...
Maia, Alexandra S.; Castro, Paula M. L.; Tiritan, M. E.tOfloxacin is a chiral fluoroquinolone commercialized as racemate and as its enantiomerically pure formlevofloxacin. This work presents an integrated liquid chromatography (LC) method with fluorescencedetection (FD) and exact mass spectrometry (EMS) developed to assess the enantiomeric biodegradationof ofloxacin and levofloxacin in laboratory-scale microcosms. The optimized enantioseparation condi-tions were ac...
Fluoroquinolones biosorption onto microbial biomass: activated sludge and aerob...
Ferreira, Vanessa R.A.; Amorim, Catarina L.; Cravo, Sara M.; Tiritan, M. E.; Castro, P. M. L.; Afonso, Carlos M. M.Fluoroquinolones (FQs) have been reported in trace amounts in different environmental matrices. The biosorption of three most prescribed FQs, ofloxacin (OFL), norfloxacin (NOR) and ciprofloxacin (CPF) by activated sludge (AS) and aerobic granular sludge (AGS) was investigated. Biosorption assays were conducted with FQs concentrations within the range of 100e700 ng mL 1, to mimic environmental conditions. At neu...
Bacterial degradation of moxifloxacin in the presence of acetate as a bulk subs...
Carvalho, M. F.; Maia, A. S.; Tiritan, M. E.; Castro, P. M. L.Fluoroquinolones constitute a group of emerging pollutants and their occurrence in different environmental compartments is becoming object of increasing public concern due to their ecotoxicological effects and the potential to develop resistant bacteria. This study aimed to investigate the biodegradation of moxifloxacin (MOX), for which studies in the literature are very scarce. An activated sludge (AS) consort...