Development of a fabric phase sorptive extraction procedure for the determination of anticancer fluorescent drugs in wastewater

Abstract

Anthracyclines are anticancer agents used in the fight against acute leukemia and in combination therapies for lymphoma and for solid tumors, which act by preventing cell division or disrupting DNA [1]. As happens with many drugs, after treatment, they are excreted and reach wastewater treatment plants, which do not degrade completely these emerging pollutants. Due to its particular use, cytostatic compounds are detected at trace level in the wastewater [2]. Therefore, the use of extraction and preconcentration techniques is mandatory. For that purpose, most of the papers that extract anthracyclines from wastewater use the classical technique Solid Phase Extraction. However, this technique present some drawbacks like time-consuming and big volumes of organic solvents and samples. In this work, we present the optimization and development of a more recent microextraction technique, named Fabric Phase Sorptive Extraction [3], for the extraction of this family of analytes in wastewater, before its determination by ultra high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (UHPLC-FD). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that this microextraction technique is applied to this group of compounds. Optimization was performed through a systematic experimental design in which all the variables that affect the process were studied. In addition, several fabrics were tested in order to find the most suitable one. In the optimal conditions, a limit of detection of 0.1 –0.15 μg·L-1 was achieved for the target analytes, with low relative standard deviation and matrix effect.