Beldean-Galea Mihail Simion, Herghelegiu Mihaela-Cătălina, Combès Audrey, Vial Jérôme, Tötös Robert, Bruzzoniti Maria Concetta, Coman Maria-Virginia
Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Babeş-Bolyai University, 30 Fântânele Str. 30, 400294 Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Raluca Ripan Institute for Research in Chemistry, Babeş-Bolyai University, 30 Fântânele Str. 30, 400294 Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Metabolites. 2025 Aug 28;15(9):576. doi: 10.3390/metabo15090576.
Paracetamol and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are the most popular first-line analgesics, being freely available without any medical prescription. For this reason, it is difficult to estimate their actual consumption among the population. One tool for surveillance of pharmaceutical use is wastewater-based epidemiology, a useful approach for monitoring public health by analyzing specific biomarkers in wastewater. : In this study, the consumption of paracetamol and four nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen, naproxen, ketoprofen, and diclofenac) was evaluated by analyzing their residues as specific biomarkers in wastewater and the fraction excreted as drug metabolites in urine. : For this purpose, composite wastewater samples were collected from the influent of the wastewater treatment plant in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in four sampling campaigns (September 2021, February 2022, February 2024, and October 2024), and the target biomarkers were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. : The results of consumption expressed in g/day/1000 inhabitants showed variations for the five studied pharmaceuticals in the following ranges: 6.65-185.57 for paracetamol, 0.32-2.44 for ibuprofen, 0.29-0.82 for naproxen, 0.21-2.65 for ketoprofen, and 0.23-1.11 for diclofenac, depending on the sampling period. This variation can be explained either by the different behaviors regarding the consumption of the pharmaceutical products studied by the population during the sampling periods or by an inappropriate estimate of the number of inhabitants connected to the sewage system. : Future studies need to establish a more comprehensive model that considers many other variables that may influence the results obtained through WBE.
对乙酰氨基酚和非甾体抗炎药是最常用的一线镇痛药，无需任何医疗处方即可自由获取。因此，很难估计它们在人群中的实际消费量。药物使用监测的一种工具是基于废水的流行病学，这是一种通过分析废水中的特定生物标志物来监测公共卫生的有用方法。在本研究中，通过分析对乙酰氨基酚和四种非甾体抗炎药（布洛芬、萘普生、酮洛芬和双氯芬酸）在废水中的残留量以及作为药物代谢物在尿液中排泄的比例，评估了它们的消费量。为此，在罗马尼亚克卢日-纳波卡污水处理厂的进水口进行了四次采样活动（2021年9月、2022年2月、2024年2月和2024年10月），采集了综合废水样本，并通过液相色谱-串联质谱法分析了目标生物标志物。以克/天/1000居民表示的消费量结果显示，所研究的五种药物的消费量在以下范围内有所变化：对乙酰氨基酚为6.65-185.57，布洛芬为0.32-2.44，萘普生为0.29-0.82，酮洛芬为0.21-2.65，双氯芬酸为0.23-1.11，具体取决于采样期。这种变化既可以通过人群在采样期内对所研究药品的消费行为差异来解释，也可以通过对连接到污水系统的居民数量估计不当来解释。未来的研究需要建立一个更全面的模型，该模型要考虑到许多其他可能影响通过基于废水的流行病学获得的结果的变量。
