de Araújo Danyelle M, Paiva Suelya da Silva M, Henrique João Miller M, Martínez-Huitle Carlos A, Dos Santos Elisama V
Laboratório de Eletroquímica Ambiental e Aplicada, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Lagoa Nova 59072-900, Brazil.
National Institute for Alternative Technologies of Detection, Toxicological Evaluation and Removal of Micropollutants and Radioactives (INCT-DATREM), Institute of Chemistry, Universidade Estadual Paulista, P.O. Box 355, Araraquara 14800-900, Brazil.
Materials (Basel). 2021 Aug 31;14(17):4990. doi: 10.3390/ma14174990.
Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a derivative of 4-aminoquinolone, is prescribed as an antimalarial prevention drug and to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus. Recently, Coronavirus (COVID-19) treatment was authorized by national and international medical organizations by chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in certain hospitalized patients. However, it is considered as an unproven hypothesis for treating COVID-19 which even itself must be investigated. Consequently, the high risk of natural water contamination due to the large production and utilization of HCQ is a key issue to overcome urgently. In fact, in Brazil, the COVID-19 kit (hydroxychloroquine and/or ivermectin) has been indicated as pre-treatment, and consequently, several people have used these drugs, for longer periods, converting them in emerging water pollutants when these are excreted and released to aquatic environments. For this reason, the development of tools for monitoring HCQ concentration in water and the treatment of polluted effluents is needed to minimize its hazardous effects. Then, in this study, an electrochemical measuring device for its environmental application on HCQ control was developed. A raw cork-graphite electrochemical sensor was prepared and a simple differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) method was used for the quantitative determination of HCQ. Results indicated that the electrochemical device exhibited a clear current response, allowing one to quantify the analyte in the 5-65 µM range. The effectiveness of the electrochemical sensor was tested in different water matrices (in synthetic and real) and lower HCQ concentrations were detected. When comparing electrochemical determinations and spectrophotometric measurements, no significant differences were observed (mean accuracy 3.0%), highlighting the potential use of this sensor in different environmental applications.
羟氯喹啉（HCQ）是4-氨基喹啉的衍生物，被用作抗疟疾预防药物，也用于治疗类风湿性关节炎和系统性红斑狼疮等疾病。最近，国家和国际医学组织已批准在某些住院患者中使用氯喹和羟氯喹啉治疗冠状病毒病（COVID-19）。然而，这被认为是一种未经证实的治疗COVID-19的假设，甚至其自身也需要研究。因此，由于HCQ的大量生产和使用导致天然水污染的高风险是一个亟待克服的关键问题。事实上，在巴西，COVID-19试剂盒（羟氯喹啉和/或伊维菌素）已被指定为预处理药物，因此，一些人长期使用这些药物，当它们被排泄并释放到水生环境中时，就会转化为新出现的水污染物。因此，需要开发监测水中HCQ浓度的工具以及处理受污染废水，以尽量减少其有害影响。然后，在本研究中，开发了一种用于环境应用以控制HCQ的电化学测量装置。制备了一种原始软木-石墨电化学传感器，并使用一种简单的差分脉冲伏安法（DPV）对HCQ进行定量测定。结果表明，该电化学装置表现出明显的电流响应，能够在5-65μM范围内对分析物进行定量。在不同的水基质（合成水和实际水样）中测试了该电化学传感器的有效性，并检测到了较低的HCQ浓度。将电化学测定结果与分光光度测量结果进行比较时，未观察到显著差异（平均准确度为3.0%），这突出了该传感器在不同环境应用中的潜在用途。
