Search Results (229)

Ofloxacin (OFL) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX) are common co-occurring antibiotic contaminants in aquatic environments, yet their long-term combined toxicity to freshwater fish remains poorly elucidated. In this study, adult mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) were used as a model to investigate histopathological alterations, oxidative stress responses, gene expression, and gut microbiota changes after 30 days of exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of OFL and SMX (0 ng/L, 50 ng/L, 1 μg/L, and 20 μg/L), either individually or in combination. The results showed that both single and combined exposures induced liver and intestinal damage. Oxidative stress responses exhibited clear tissue specificity, with activation of antioxidant defenses in the liver, whereas the intestine was mainly characterized by decreased SOD and GST activities, as well as reduced MDA content. Changes in gene expression were relatively limited, with significant alterations observed only in hepatic sod2 and hsp90 and intestinal hsp70 in certain treatment groups. Gut microbiota analysis showed that OFL exerted a stronger disruptive effect than SMX, as reflected by increased alpha diversity, reduced abundance of core genera, and functional remodeling, whereas combined exposure triggered weaker microbial community restructuring relative to single exposures. Overall, OFL and SMX induced tissue-specific toxicity in mosquitofish by causing tissue injury, oxidative stress imbalance, and gut microbiota dysbiosis, with OFL showing the stronger overall effect. Full article

Background/Objectives: The increased prevalence of multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae poses a critical threat to global health and food safety. Antimicrobial Blue Light (aBL) in the 400–470 nm spectrum has emerged as a promising, chemical-free disinfection strategy that targets intracellular porphyrins and flavins to induce oxidative stress. However, the influence of wavelength, dosimetry, and environmental stressors on endogenous photoinactivation remains poorly standardized regarding optical parameters and biological exposure protocols. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial efficacy of pure blue light (400–470 nm) against E. coli across various phenotypes and environmental conditions, excluding the use of exogenous photosensitizers. Methods: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for studies that utilized 400–470 nm light as an antimicrobial agent against E. coli. Data extraction focused on spectral efficiency, total fluence (J/cm²), and log₁₀ reduction. The Risk of Bias was assessed using an adapted Office of Health Assessment and Translation tool for in vitro studies. Results: Synthesis of 11 high-quality studies indicated that wavelengths near 405 nm have the highest germicidal efficiency due to the Soret band absorption of endogenous porphyrins. Efficacy is highly dose-dependent: significant log₁₀ reductions were achieved in planktonic cells, although biofilms required substantially higher fluences. Sub-lethal environmental stressors such as acidic pH, high salinity, and thermal fluctuations demonstrated a synergistic effect, which significantly enhanced the rate of photoinactivation. Multidrug-resistant and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae strains showed similar susceptibility to aBL relative to antibiotic-sensitive strains, suggesting no cross-resistance between light and traditional drugs. Conclusions: Endogenous blue light is a highly effective, non-thermal technology for E. coli decontamination. Its efficacy is modulated by the interplay between optical parameters and environmental conditions. These findings provide a framework for the development of standardized protocols for applying aBL to clinical wound care and food industry use cases. They also highlight the potential of aBL as a critical tool in the post-antibiotic era. This systematic review was registered in the International prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO) under protocol CRD420261331871. Full article

Domestic wastewater is a chemically complex and highly variable mixture of pollutants generated by everyday household activities, yet its contribution to environmental contamination is still frequently underestimated and only 56% of wastewater worldwide is being treated. This review provides a structured and quantitative assessment of major domestic wastewater pollutant groups, their principal exposure pathways, and current and emerging treatment technologies. Beyond a conventional narrative synthesis, the review derives per capita annual emission estimates from published data and uses these to compare pollutant groups by mass flow and environmental relevance. The analysis shows that high-volume household inputs, particularly sodium chloride from domestic water softening, toilet paper, personal-care products, detergents, and cleaning agents, can contribute substantially to overall pollutant loads, whereas lower-mass contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, PFAS, heavy metals, and microplastics remain critical because of their persistence, biological activity, and incomplete removal during treatment. The review further highlights that conventional wastewater treatment systems are often poorly equipped to remove many of these emerging contaminants effectively, especially under decentralised or only partially advanced treatment conditions. Advanced and hybrid technologies, including membrane bioreactors, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, adsorption, photocatalysis, and electrochemical processes, offer clear potential, but their broader implementation remains constrained by cost, energy demand, fouling, and concentrate management. Overall, the added value of this review lies in linking mass-based pollutant prioritisation with treatment performance, thereby providing a more systematic basis for identifying dominant household emission pathways and for guiding targeted mitigation and technology selection in future wastewater management. Full article

The overuse of antibiotics has led to their widespread environmental residues, posing a significant threat to the ecological environment. In this study, a flower-like spherical CoFe-layered double hydroxide (CoFe-LDH) catalyst was prepared using a hydrothermal method. The degradation performance of the CoFe-LDH/peroxymonosulfate (PMS) system was systematically investigated using tetracycline (TC) as a model pollutant. The CoFe-LDH exhibited a three-dimensional nanoflower-like spherical structure formed by interlaced nanosheets, featuring smooth surfaces and well-defined edges. This hierarchical porous structure facilitates the exposure of active sites. The CoFe-LDH/PMS system demonstrated remarkable degradation efficiency, achieving over 90.17% TC removal within 10 min. As the dosage of CoFe-LDH and PMS increases, the degradation rate of TC improves significantly, but the marginal improvement effect decreases. TC degradation efficiency increased with pH up to an optimum at pH 5.0, beyond which it declined. The anions—Cl⁻, $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{O}}_3^{-}$, and $\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{O}}_4^{2-}$—all exhibited inhibitory effects on TC degradation; the TC removal rates decreased to 77.88%, 80.58%, and 82.78%, respectively. The removal experiments of different organic pollutants, such as oxytetracycline (88.91%), methylene blue (98.36%), and ciprofloxacin (84.52%), as well as actual water experiments, such as lake water (92.48%) and tap water (80.86%), have demonstrated the good universality of the CoFe-LDH/PMS system. Radical quenching experiments confirmed that ^•OH and $\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{O}}_4^{•-}$ were the dominant reactive species. Full article

Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) have now been detected in human blood, placenta, and arterial tissue, yet the oral cavity has received strikingly little mechanistic attention despite serving as a primary portal of environmental exposure and a local site of polymer generation from dental and oral-care materials. This narrative review addresses that gap from an environmental microbiology perspective, synthesizing recent literature on periodontal disease, chronic low-grade inflammation, oral biofilms, dental materials, microbial–plastic interactions, and systemic chronic disease risk. Unlike prior reviews, we apply an explicit three-tier evidentiary framework (established, plausible, unproven) that distinguishes what is directly demonstrated from what is biologically plausible but unproven, and we situate the periodontal environment specifically as a particle-retention and inflammatory-amplification niche. The strongest direct oral evidence shows that human dental calculus harbors at least 26 microplastic types, dominated by polyamide (41.4%), polyethylene (32.7%), and polyurethane (7.0%). Polyethylene isolated from calculus induces cytotoxicity, apoptosis, impaired migration, NF-κB activation, and upregulation of IL-1β and IL-6 in human gingival fibroblasts. From a microbiological standpoint, oral organisms actively degrade methacrylate dental polymers, and the degradation products of these polymers reciprocally modulate oral bacterial virulence gene expression. Across experimental systems, MNPs activate oxidative stress, inflammasome signaling, macrophage polarization, and barrier dysfunction, pathways that overlap extensively with periodontal pathobiology. Adjacent environmental microbiology demonstrates that plastic-associated biofilms enhance extracellular polymeric substance production, quorum sensing, pathogen persistence, and antibiotic resistance gene transfer, supporting a plausible but not yet validated oral plastisphere within plaque and calculus. We argue that periodontitis should be reconceptualized as a chronically inflamed particle-processing interface that may increase local MNP retention, cellular reactivity, and systemic inflammatory spillover, with implications for cardiovascular, metabolic, and other chronic disease risk pathways. Current evidence does not yet prove that environmental MNP exposure causes human periodontitis, and that evidentiary boundary is maintained throughout. A priority research agenda is proposed, centered on contamination-controlled subgingival biomonitoring stratified by periodontal status, spatially resolved multi-species biofilm models, polymer source attribution, and longitudinal clinical studies linking oral plastic burden to inflammatory and systemic outcomes. Full article

Pesticide manufacturing industry wastewater is a complex mixture of potentially harmful components. If not properly treated, discharged effluents may pose serious risks to environment and organisms. In this study, influent and effluent wastewater samples from a pesticide factory were comprehensively non-screened by liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry, coupled with zebrafish embryo toxicity testing to assess whole effluent toxicity. A total of eight chemical groups were identified, including pesticides, antibiotics, nitrogen compounds, ketones, esters, amines and derivatives, other drugs, and other organic compounds. While wastewater treatment processes reduced most of the analyzed groups of compounds, compounds (e.g., 2-aminophenol, N-Nitrosodipropylamine, and carbamazepine) increased during the treatments. The influent samples were more toxic to zebrafish than the effluent samples in terms of lethality, teratogenic effects, developmental impacts, locomotor behavior, and neurotoxicity. The results showed that locomotor behavior was the most sensitive phenotypic toxicity endpoint, with significantly higher sensitivity than traditional acute lethal or teratogenic endpoints. Through a multi-dimensional assessment approach combining chemical screening, literature-based, risk ranking, and targeted quantification, we identified three predominant pesticide residues in the wastewater samples (both influents and effluents): hexaconazole, fenobucarb and isoprocarb. All three compounds exhibited additive or synergistic toxicity in zebrafish embryos. Exposure to ≥0.08% influent or ≥2% effluent increased inflammation (interleukin-1 beta, IL-1β), oxidative stress (copper/zinc superoxide dismutase, Cu/Zn-Sod), apoptosis (tumor protein p53, p53), and significantly impaired neurodevelopment in zebrafish larvae by altering the expression of sonic hedgehog a (shha), synapsin IIa (syn2a), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (gfap). This study suggests the necessity of incorporating non-apical endpoint (locomotor behavior) into whole effluent toxicity test, as this approach is essential for reducing the environmental risks posed by pesticide factory wastewater. Full article

Background/Objectives: The accumulation of unused and expired pharmaceuticals in households is a growing public health concern with implications for patient safety, rational drug use, and environmental health. However, systematic risk characterization integrating clinical and environmental perspectives at the community level remains limited, particularly in low- and middle-income settings. This study aimed to develop and apply a composite risk index, grounded in an eco-pharmacovigilance framework, for the assessment of health risks associated with accumulated household pharmaceuticals in southeastern Mexico. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 526 randomly selected households using stratified sampling. Guided in-home medication inventories were performed with participant collaboration, and pharmaceuticals were classified according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) system. A composite risk index (CRI = Fr × PR) was developed within an eco-pharmacovigilance framework. The frequency of accumulation (Fr) for each therapeutic group was multiplied by a potential risk score (PR) derived through a structured multidisciplinary expert consensus process integrating clinical toxicity, environmental persistence, and antimicrobial resistance potential. Results: A total of 2184 pharmaceutical units were recorded during the household inventories, of which 28.7% were expired. Expired medications were primarily retained rather than actively used, representing a latent risk for inappropriate self-medication and accidental exposure. The therapeutic groups with the highest CRI values were antihypertensives (CRI = 42.3), antidiabetics (CRI = 37.8), and antibiotics (CRI = 31.5), indicating a relatively higher contribution within the composite risk index framework to overall household pharmaceutical risk. These findings highlight priority therapeutic groups driven by the combined effect of high accumulation frequency, distinct accumulation patterns, and intrinsic hazard. Conclusions: Household pharmaceutical accumulation can be characterized using a composite, eco-pharmacovigilance-based approach that integrates exposure and hazard dimensions. The proposed framework functions as a prioritization tool rather than a precise quantitative measure, enabling the identification of therapeutic groups requiring targeted intervention. Findings should be interpreted as indicative of relative risk patterns rather than precise estimates, given the exploratory design and guided data collection approach. The proposed framework provides a practical tool for prioritizing interventions aimed at improving rational drug use, reducing accumulation, and mitigating environmental impact. Further validation in diverse settings is warranted to strengthen its applicability. Full article

Microplastics (MPs) are pervasive environmental contaminants detected in terrestrial, aquatic, and human systems. Emerging evidence indicates that MPs interact with microbiota through biofilm formation, induction of oxidative stress, enrichment of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and disruption of short-chain fatty acid metabolism, leading to dysbiosis and altered host immune responses. These interactions contribute to dysbiosis, altered immune responses, and increased dissemination of ARGs, which pose health risks. This review synthesizes current knowledge on mechanisms of microplastic–microbiota interactions, highlighting evidence from in vitro, in vivo, and environmental studies. We discuss methodological challenges, including variability in particle types, concentrations, aging, and analytical approaches. Recent advances in multi-omics techniques provide deeper mechanistic understanding and reveal functional consequences of MP exposure. We outline key knowledge gaps and propose future research directions to assess the impact of microplastic exposure on ecosystems and human health. Full article

Background: Cephalosporins, widely used β-lactam antibiotics, are becoming significant environmental pollutants, primarily due to their high use and persistence. They are released into the environment mainly through wastewater treatment plants, agricultural runoff, and hospital discharge, with particularly high concentrations recorded in effluents. Conventional wastewater treatment methods have inadequate removal efficiency, while advanced treatments, such as ozonation, activated carbon adsorption, and advanced oxidation processes, although more efficient, may produce toxic by-products. Recent studies emphasize the importance of improved detection and monitoring techniques and advocate for stricter effluent regulations. Despite growing research attention, important knowledge gaps remain, including limited long-term field monitoring, insufficient data on environmentally realistic exposure scenarios, and incomplete assessment of transformation-product toxicity. Methods: The search strategy used the SCOPUS and PUBMED databases with the keywords “cephalosporin” AND “aquatic environment”, resulting in 341 records. After applying predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, 110 peer-reviewed English-language studies meeting predefined thematic inclusion criteria and relevant to the occurrence, environmental fate, ecotoxicological effects, antimicrobial resistance, and removal of cephalosporins in aquatic environments were included in the narrative synthesis. Results: The literature on cephalosporins in aquatic environments has expanded significantly from 1978 to 2025, prompted by concerns about pharmaceutical contamination and antibiotic resistance. Studies from 2016 to 2025 used advanced and multidisciplinary monitoring techniques, revealed key pollution sources such as wastewater treatment plants and hospitals, and correlated antibiotic residues with resistance genes, highlighting the need for continued monitoring and mitigation efforts. Ecotoxicological and fate studies further indicate that transformation processes may generate products with altered or increased toxicity, complicating environmental risk assessment. Conclusions: The literature shows increasing attention to cephalosporins in aquatic environments, reporting associations with antimicrobial resistance and adverse effects on aquatic organisms, including potential toxicity from transformation products. This review highlights the need for integrated monitoring, standardized toxicity assessment, and improved treatment strategies within a One Health framework. Full article

Background/Objectives: Glyphosate-based formulations are globally pervasive pollutants increasingly recognized as potential contributors to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in environmental microbiomes. Although glyphosate is designed to inhibit plant 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase, it also affects microbial metabolism, stress response, and genetic exchange. This review synthesizes the pathways through which glyphosate, its metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), and commercial mixtures influence resistance-associated phenotypes and the dissemination of antibiotic resistance (ABR). Methods: A critical synthesis of the literature was conducted to evaluate the mechanistic and ecological interactions between glyphosate exposure and bacterial resistance in soil, aquatic, and host-associated microbiomes. Results: Experimental evidence showed that sublethal glyphosate exposure induced oxidative stress, altered membrane permeability, activated multidrug efflux pumps, and promoted tolerance phenotypes that could modify antibiotic susceptibility. It also enhances mutation rates and horizontal gene transfer processes associated with the emergence of resistance under controlled conditions. At the community level, glyphosate exposure is associated with microbiome restructuring and enrichment of resistance determinants, often without major shifts in overall diversity of the microbiome. These effects have been reported at environmentally relevant concentrations, although the evidence remains largely derived from laboratory and mesocosm studies. Conclusions: Glyphosate acts as both a biochemical modulator of resistance-related phenotypes and an environmental selective pressure that shapes microbial communities. Its widespread use and environmental persistence position it as a context-dependent contributor to the emergence and dissemination of AMR through interacting mechanistic and ecological pathways. Integrating AMR endpoints into pesticide risk assessments and surveillance frameworks is warranted, in addition to expanded field-based validation. Full article

With the continuing intensification of modern agriculture, pesticides and antibiotics are extensively used to control pests and diseases, but their improper use and indirect inputs have resulted in widespread contamination of agricultural environments and food products. This review synthesizes how these contaminants enter agroecosystems, their occurrence across soils, waters and agricultural products, and the processes that redistribute residues across air–water–soil interfaces and into the soil–plant continuum. We summarize cross-media transport pathways (e.g., runoff/leaching, volatilization–deposition and irrigation-driven redistribution) and relate environmental exposure to plant uptake using a harmonized indicator set, including the bioconcentration factor (BCF), translocation factor (TF), octanol–water partition coefficient (log Kow) and soil organic carbon–water partition coefficient (Koc). We further discuss key determinants of crop accumulation, including compound-specific properties, soil characteristics and plant physiological traits, and highlight how these factors jointly shape residue profiles in edible tissues. Finally, we outline research priorities for source reduction, standardized multi-matrix surveillance, fate-to-uptake modeling, and microbiome-enabled remediation strategies to support pollution control, food safety and public health. Full article

Background: Air pollution, antimicrobial use, and population ageing are increasingly recognised as co-occurring pressures shaping population health. This study explores their ecological association with mortality patterns in the province of Messina (Southern Italy), within a One Health-informed framework. Methods: An ecological analysis was conducted using district-by-year data (2015–2024), integrating environmental monitoring (PM₁₀, PM_2.5, NO₂, O₃), outpatient antibiotic consumption, and cause-specific mortality rates. Multivariable regression models were used to assess associations between exposures and mortality outcomes. A post-2020 indicator was included to account for COVID-19-related disruption. Results: Marked geographic variability in pollutant concentrations was observed, with higher levels in urban-industrial districts. Infectious disease mortality increased from 13.8 to 44.6 per 100,000 inhabitants between the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods. In Poisson regression models, particulate matter showed a small and non-significant association with respiratory mortality (RR = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.89–1.18), while antibiotic consumption was not independently associated with mortality (RR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.94–1.05). The post-2020 period was associated with higher mortality estimates (RR = 1.15, 95% CI: 0.72–1.83), although with wide confidence intervals. Conclusions: The findings suggest the co-occurrence of environmental, demographic, and pharmaceutical pressures within the same territories, rather than demonstrating formal synergistic interaction. The observed post-pandemic increase in mortality highlights the importance of accounting for COVID-19-related disruption. These results should be interpreted as exploratory, given the ecological design and limited sample size, but support the need for integrated surveillance approaches within a One Health perspective. Full article

Pharmaceuticals are increasingly recognized as emerging contaminants with potential impacts on agroecosystems. Among these, antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin (CPX) persist in wastewater and may enter agricultural soils through irrigation or fertilization practices, yet their effects on crop plants remain poorly understood. This study evaluated the phytotoxic effects of ciprofloxacin on early growth and photosynthetic pigment content in purple maize (Zea mays L.), a variety of nutritional and cultural importance. Seeds were germinated in an agar-based medium (0.5%) and exposed to three concentrations of ciprofloxacin (3, 10, and 30 mg·L⁻¹) for seven days under controlled conditions. Germination percentage, seedling fresh weight, organ length (root, stem, and leaf), and photosynthetic pigment concentrations (chlorophylls a and b, and carotenoids) were determined. Ciprofloxacin exposure resulted in dose-dependent reductions in germination (from 83% at 3 mg·L⁻¹ to 50% at 30 mg·L⁻¹) and root elongation, while stem length remained unaffected. Chlorophyll content decreased with increasing ciprofloxacin concentration, with the lowest values observed at 30 mg·L⁻¹, while carotenoid levels remained stable, with no statistically significant differences observed. Although ciprofloxacin is typically detected in environmental matrices at ng–µg L⁻¹ levels, higher concentrations may occur in localized contamination hotspots; ciprofloxacin affected early developmental and physiological processes in maize under these elevated exposure conditions. These findings highlight the importance of integrating phytotoxicity assessments into agricultural ecopharmacovigilance strategies and contribute to understanding the risks associated with pharmaceutical contamination in crop production systems. Full article

Background/Objectives: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a critical global public health challenge driven by inappropriate and excessive antimicrobial use (AMU) across human, animal, and environmental sectors. Method: This narrative review synthesizes recent evidence on antimicrobial utilization and resistance patterns. A structured search of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science was conducted for studies published between 2015 and 2025. Eligible sources included surveillance reports, registry-based analyses, and clinical studies. Data were qualitatively analyzed to identify key trends and regional variations. Result: Marked geographical variation in AMR was observed. Carbapenem resistance in Escherichia coli remains low globally (2–3%) but is higher in Southeast Asia (17–18%) and India (~40%). Klebsiella pneumoniae shows consistently high resistance (>40% globally; ~54% in India), while Pseudomonas aeruginosa exhibits stable resistance levels (35–45%). Resistance prevalence increases from primary to tertiary care settings, reflecting greater antimicrobial exposure. Vulnerable populations—including pediatric, elderly, pregnant, and immunocompromised patients—face higher risks of antimicrobial exposure and adverse outcomes, including nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, and microbiome disruption. WHO AWaRe data indicate a global shift toward increased use of Watch-category antibiotics. Stewardship interventions, such as audit and feedback, prescribing restrictions, rapid diagnostics, and decision support systems, effectively reduce inappropriate AMU. Conclusions: Integrated, data-driven antimicrobial stewardship and robust surveillance systems are essential to mitigate the global burden of AMR. Full article

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are increasingly recognized as emerging contaminants in wastewater treatment systems; however, their responses to dissolved oxygen (DO)-limited conditions caused by insufficient aeration, particularly in the presence of microplastics, remain poorly understood. In this study, three sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were operated for 31 days under progressively oxygen-limited conditions with different concentrations of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) microplastics to investigate their combined effects on treatment performance, microbial communities, ARGs, mobile genetic elements (MGEs), and PET degradation-related genes using metagenomic analysis. Prolonged oxygen limitation maintained relatively stable organic matter removal but progressively deteriorated ammonium removal and sludge settleability, while PET addition significantly aggravated these effects. PET exposure markedly increased the absolute abundance of ARGs without substantially altering resistome composition or dominant resistance mechanisms, suggesting an amplification rather than restructuring of the resistome. Correlation analyses indicated that ARGs enrichment was primarily host-associated and driven by the proliferation of a limited number of microbial taxa. Several potential ARG hosts were also strongly associated with PET degradation-related genes, indicating shared microbial populations linking PET-associated functions and antibiotic resistance. In addition, strong positive correlations between ARGs and MGEs suggested an important role of gene mobility in resistome dynamics under oxygen-limited conditions. Overall, these results demonstrate that oxygen limitation combined with PET microplastics promotes host-associated ARG enrichment in wastewater systems, highlighting potential environmental and public health risks and emphasizing the importance of maintaining operational stability to mitigate antibiotic resistance dissemination. Full article