Tetracyclines ELISA Kit

Antibiotics exert their antimicrobial effect by destroying or slowing down the growth of bacteria, and can be categorized into different groups based on different mechanisms of action and chemical structures. Currently the use of antibiotics is increasing dramatically every year, and the misuse of antibiotics has led to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant genes, which can also spread horizontally to other bacteria, seriously affecting the therapeutic effect of antibiotics. One of the most commonly used antibiotics is tetracycline, first isolated in Streptomyces, which has a broad-spectrum antibacterial activity based on the antibacterial principle of inhibiting the ability of bacteria to synthesize proteins by attaching to the 30S ribosomal subunit of the bacteria. However, the misuse of tetracyclines in human clinical care and animal husbandry has become a major threat to the environment and human health, and tetracycline residues have been detected in various environmental conditions, including soil, surface water and marine environments, which have a negative impact on ecosystems and can accumulate along the food chain, affecting microbial growth and metabolism as well as the microbial community structure of ecosystems, further contributing to the development of antibiotic resistance. In addition to drug resistance, tetracycline residues are toxic, and tetracycline also poses a threat to drinking and irrigation water and destroys the microflora in the human gut. It is therefore important to develop efficient and economical treatment technologies to degrade tetracycline residues in the environment.

The most common cause of tetracycline contamination is its stability and low metabolism in humans and animals, where about 75% of the antibiotic is excreted, in addition to the frequent use of tetracycline as a growth promoter in agriculture is one of the causes of tetracycline contamination of the aquatic and acoustic environment. Tetracycline inhibited the growth of different algae, and the inhibitory effect increased with the concentration, when the concentration was 30 mg/L, the growth inhibition rate of mixed algae was 94%. Tetracycline also affects the abundance and species richness of planktonic organisms, which recover their abundance and species richness after exposure to tetracycline ceases. Elevated tetracycline concentrations also reduce water clarity and dissolved oxygen levels. Tetracycline contamination affects fish embryonic development and gut microbiota, alters fish behavior, and causes oxidative stress. Bacteria in aquatic environments are resistant to tetracyclines, and these resistance genes are often encoded in plasmids and transposons that can be passed on across species, leading to rapid spread of resistance among aquatic microbial populations and eventual transfer to human pathogens. These phenomena can further hinder available antibiotic treatments and increase the incidence of serious infectious diseases.

Degradation of tetracyclines can be categorized into non-biological and biological methods, as well as a combination of both. Common abiotic degradations are hydrolysis, adsorption, electrochemical, and photocatalytic oxidation, while biological degradation uses pure cultures of fungi and bacteria, precipitation, and sludge. A combination of the two can also be used to degrade tetracyclines using a combination of processes such as ozone and activated sludge, membrane bioreactor (MBR) with ozone, photocatalysis and biodegradation. The combined process of biochemical treatment and constructed wetlands (CWs) can further treat the low concentration of tetracycline in the effluent of wastewater treatment plants. Tetracycline in the influent can be removed by biodegradation, photolysis, hydrolysis, substrate adsorption, plant uptake and biological coupling, and the treatment effect is affected by the seasons, hydraulic loads, light intensities, plant species and other factors.

Figure 1. The fate of tetracycline and nutrients during biochemical treatment process coupled with an advanced treatment system
(Source: Shao S, et al. 2020)