MICROORGANISMS & PHARMACEUTICAL POLLUTANTS

                     MICROORGANSISMS & PHARMACEUTICAL POLLUTANTS

INTRODUCTION

Drugs represent the new environment pollutants which are being found in water, soil, and even air. These contaminants are antibiotics, painkillers, hormones, antidepressants, and other medicinal substances which find their way into the environment via hospital waste, pharmaceutical plants, improper disposal of the drugs as well as the human or animal excretions. Even though they exist in small amounts, such chemicals may have serious ecological and health effects in the long run.

Their persistence in the environment is one of the greatest issues to do with pharmaceutical pollutants. There are numerous pharmaceutical substances that are meant to be chemically stable to have the capacity to work within the human body. Nevertheless, they are not susceptible to natural degradation processes owing to this stability. In most cases, the standard wastewater treatment facilities can not fully treat these compounds thus resulting into their constant discharges to rivers, lakes, and groundwater.

IMPACT OF PHARMACEUTICALS ON MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES

Microorganisms have a two-fold role in this matter. On the one hand, pharmaceutical contaminants, in particular antibiotics, have a negative impact on them. Antibiotics cause a selective pressure on the microbial communities when introduced into natural ecosystems. It may give rise to the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria, which is a severe threat to the world population health. On the other hand, the horizontal gene transfer between microbial populations also increases the difficulty of treating infections due to the spread of resistant genes.Microorganisms, in its turn, can provide a promising solution to the problem of pharmaceutical pollution. There are bacteria, fungi and algae that can degrade or convert pharmaceutical substances to less harmful substances. This is a biodegradation process, which entails the enzyme reaction that degrades the complex chemical structures. As an example, Pseudomonas, Bacillus and white-rot fungi like Phanerochaete chrysosporium are famed to be able to break down antibiotics and other drug residues.

MICROBIAL DEGRADATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL POLLUTANTS

Bioremediation is a non-polluting and economical technique and employs microorganisms to eliminate pollutants in polluted areas. Biofilms and activated sludge processes are used in wastewater treatment systems and are dependent on microbiomes to break down organic pollutants, even pharmaceutical ones. Highly developed methods like bioaugmentation (the introduction of particular pollutant-degrading bacteria) and biostimulation (the stimulation of microbial activities by the introduction of nutrients) are under investigation to enhance the removal efficiency.

BIOREMEDIATION STRATIGIES FOR PHARMACEUTICAL POLLUTION

Microorganisms have a complex interaction with pharmaceutical pollutants. Although microbes have the ability to cleanse difficult to break down chemicals, the ecological balance can be disturbed due to long term exposure. Variations in the populations of microbes are capable of influencing the nutrient cycling, soil fertility, and the health of aquatic ecosystems. Thus, these interactions need to be understood in order to come up with sustainable pollution management practices.

ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE AND PHARMACEUTICAL POLLUTANTS

Pharmaceutical pollutants are emerging as a serious environmental issue, yet there is hope that the microorganisms can degrade these pollutants through the process of natural degradation. Further studies in the biotechnology of microbes, genetic engineering, and new and better wastewater treatment methods will play a critical role in curbing the problem of pharmaceutical contamination. With the collaboration of science and the sound practice of drug disposal, we will be able to decrease the impact of modern medicine on the environment and create a safer environment or society.

EDCs IN AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS

Pharmaceutical pollution consists in endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) synthetic hormones contained in birth control pills. When these substances find their way to the water ecosystems, they may disrupt the hormonal mechanisms of the fish and other aquatic organisms. It has been demonstrated that even traces of hormonal drugs can lead to feminization of male fish and cause reproductive abnormalities. Aquatic organisms can seek to metabolise these compounds but the metabolism is usually slow and incomplete resulting in bioaccumulation.

SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN MICROBIAL DEGRADATION

The interaction between pharmaceutical pollutants and microorganisms are also dependent on seasonal variations. The temperature, pH, availability of oxygen, and nutrient strength influence the metabolism and enzyme activity of microbes. When the seasons are warmer then the rate of microbial degradation can be higher as the metabolism is more active. But when the temperatures are lower or it is wintertime, the lack of microbial activities might result in pharmaceutical residues being deposited in the water and soil.

The importance of biofilms in the degradation of pharmaceutical is high. Microorganisms can commonly occur in natural and enigineered systems as biofilms or complex communities bound to the surface of embedded within an extracellular matrix of protection.Biofilms are stabilizing and increase the resistance of microbes to poisonous substances. In such communities, other microbial species are able to interact with each other in a metabolic manner, so that more of the pharmaceutical pollutants are reduced than when free-floating (planktonic) cells are present.

NANOTECHNOLOGY IN MICROBIAL REMEDIATION

Microbial remediation processes are also being combined with nanotechnology. Nanomaterials: Nanoparticles are nanomaterials that can increase microbial degradation through the enhancement of pollutant adsorption or the use of nanoparticles as catalysts. To take an example, the rate of breakage of biotics that are persistent and anti-inflammatory drugs can be increased by incorporating nanoparticles in microbial treatment systems. The combination method is a new direction in environmental biotechnology.

CONCLUSION

Pharmaceutical pollutants need sophisticated methods of analysis like the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the mass spectrometry. Those instruments assist scientists in identifying even minimum traces of drugs residues and investigating how microorganisms modify them. The fact that it is necessary to control continuous monitoring to assess the efficiency of microbial remediation phased and comprehend the impact of long-term exposure to the environment identifies a dilemma and a way to optimize the environment. Even though pharmaceutical contamination poses a risk to the microbial diversity and ecological balance, microorganisms themselves offer sustainable solutions via natural biodegradation. The solution to this increasing environmental challenge will be through research reinforcement, enhanced waste management systems and interdisciplinary cooperation.

Reference

https://www.publish.csiro.au/MA/MA18037