We conducted a microbiological and toxicological profiling of a pharmaceutical wastewater, one of the major wastes entering the Lagos lagoon. The morphological characterization of seven bacterial isolates from the wastewater indicated that 4 of them were gram positive bacilli while 3 were cocci of both gram reactions. The bacterial isolates exhibited varying degrees of enzyme activities but most were able to hydrolyze starch to yield amylase. Only 3 of the isolates showed prospects as antibacterial agents, given their moderate inhibition to Staphylococcus xylosus relative to 8 other species tested. Overall, 81.3% of the isolates were resistant, and 3.3% were susceptible while 15.4% of the isolates showed intermediate sensitivity to the antibiotics. The assessment of antioxidant activities in liver samples of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, exposed to sublethal concentrations of the effluents indicated some form of oxidative stress given the higher levels of lipid peroxidation product, malondialdehyde, in the exposed fishes relative to the control kept in dechlorinate tap water. But for reduced glutathione, activities of the antioxidative stress enzymes, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione-s-transferase (GST), were higher in the effluent exposed tilapia. Responses were not dose dependent and enzyme activities were often higher at day 14 compared to day 28. This relevance of the findings to water quality was discussed. 1. Introduction The fate of pharmaceutical effluents in aquatic environments is increasingly eliciting scientific inquiry owing to recent findings of their effects in biological systems [1]. Nigeria has a few pharmaceutical companies most of which are situated in Ogun and Lagos States in the country’s south western region, discharging effluents into neighbouring rivers, creeks, and lagoons. Pharmaceutical effluents are wastes generated by pharmaceutical industries during the process of drug manufacturing [2]. These wastes by virtue of their source are composed of a variety of biologically active chemical components including antibiotics, lipid regulators, anti-inflammatories, antiepileptics, tranquilizers, oil and grease [3], heavy metals [4], and myriads of other compounds depending on the drug or personal care products being manufactured. Pharmaceutical effluents particularly those rich in contraceptives have also been linked with endocrine disrupting effects [5]. Microbial actions on effluents often result in products which may also interfere with endocrine functions. Mycobacterium smegmatis is known to
References
[1]
J. D. Salierno and A. S. Kane, “17α-ethinylestradiol alters reproductive behaviors, circulating hormones, and sexual morphology in male fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas),” Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 953–961, 2009.
[2]
M. A. Idris, B. G. Kolo, S. T. Garba, and M. A. Ismail, “Physico-chemical analysis of pharmaceutical effluent and surface water of River Gorax in Minna, Niger State, Nigeria,” Bulletin of Environment, Pharmacology and Life Sciences, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 45–49, 2013.
[3]
A. Lateef, “The microbiology of a pharmaceutical effluent and its public health implications,” World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 167–171, 2004.
[4]
S. T. Sankpal and P. V. Naikwade, “Heavy metal concentration in effluent discharge of pharmaceutical industries,” Science Research Reporter, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 88–90, 2012.
[5]
R. J. Golden, K. L. Noller, L. Titus-Ernstoff et al., “Environmental endocrine modulators and human health: an assessment of the biological evidence,” Critical Reviews in Toxicology, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 109–227, 1998.
[6]
T. E. Denton, W. M. Howell, J. J. Allison, J. McCollum, and B. Marks, “Masculinization of female mosquitofish by exposure to plant sterols and Mycobacterium smegmatis,” Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 627–632, 1985.
[7]
Y.-P. Xie, Z.-Q. Fang, L.-P. Hou, and G.-G. Ying, “Altered development and reproduction in western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) found in the Hanxi River, southern China,” Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, vol. 29, no. 11, pp. 2607–2615, 2010.
[8]
N. H. Amaeze, R. I. Egonmwan, A. F. Jolaosho, and A. A. Otitoloju, “Coastal environmental pollution and fish species diversity in Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria,” International Journal of Environmental Protection, vol. 2, no. 11, pp. 8–16, 2012.
[9]
J. Timbrell, Principles of Biochemical Toxicology, Taylor & Francis, 3rd edition, 2000.
[10]
APHA-AWWA-WEF, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 21st edition, 2005.
[11]
ASTM, “Method D2887-93 test method for boiling range distribution of petroleum fractions by gas chromatography,” in Annual Book of ASTM Standards, vol. 5, p. 27, American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, Pa, USA, 1997.
[12]
S. C. U. Nwachukwu and T. V. I. Apata, Principles of Quantitative Microbiology, University of Lagos Press, Lagos, Nigeria, 1st edition, 2003.
[13]
P. K. Talaro, Foundations in Microbiology, Pearson Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco, Calif, USA, 2009.
[14]
D. T. John, H. J. James, P. R. Murray et al., Manual of Clinical Microbiology, American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA, 7th edition, 2009.
[15]
S. A. Liasi, T. I. Azmi, M. D. Hassan, M. Shuhaimi, M. Rosfarizan, and A. B. Ariff, “Antimicrobial activity and antibiotic sensitivity of three isolates of lactic acid bacteria from fermented fish product, Bud,” Malaysian Journal of Microbiology, vol. 5, pp. 33–37, 2009.
[16]
A. A. Otitoloju and K. N. Don-Pedro, “Establishment oft he toxicity ranking order of heavy metals and sensitivity scale of benthic animals inhabiting the Lagos lagoon,” West African Journal of Ecology, vol. 3, pp. 31–41, 2002.
[17]
K. Yagi, “Simple procedure for specific assay of lipid hydroperoxides in serum or plasma,” Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 108, pp. 107–110, 1998.
[18]
M. Sun and S. Zigman, “An improved spectrophotometric assay for superoxide dismutase based on epinephrine autoxidationn,” Analytical Biochemistry, vol. 90, no. 1, pp. 81–89, 1978.
[19]
A. Aksenses and L. Najaa, “Determination of catalase activity in fish,” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, vol. 69, pp. 893–896, 1981.
[20]
J. Sedlak and R. H. Lindsay, “Estimation of total, protein-bound, and nonprotein sulfhydryl groups in tissue with Ellman's reagent,” Analytical Biochemistry, vol. 25, pp. 192–205, 1968.
[21]
W. H. Habig, M. J. Pabst, and W. B. Jakoby, “Glutathione S transferases. The first enzymatic step in mercapturic acid formation,” The Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 249, no. 22, pp. 7130–7139, 1974.
[22]
F. Rasheed, A. Khan, and S. U. Kazmi, “Bacteriological analysis, antimicrobial susceptibility and detection of 16S rRNA gene of Helicobacter pylori by PCR in drinking water samples of earthquake affected areas and other parts of Pakistan,” Malaysian Journal of Microbiology, vol. 5, pp. 123–127, 2009.
[23]
A. Valavanidis, T. Vlahogianni, M. Dassenakis, and M. Scoullos, “Molecular biomarkers of oxidative stress in aquatic organisms in relation to toxic environmental pollutants,” Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 178–189, 2006.
[24]
A. Otitoloju and O. Olagoke, “Lipid peroxidation and antioxidant defense enzymes in Clarias gariepinus as useful biomarkers for monitoring exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,” Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, vol. 182, no. 1–4, pp. 205–213, 2011.
[25]
M. J. Leaver and S. G. George, “A piscine glutathione S-transferase which efficiently conjugates the end-products of lipid peroxidation,” Marine Environmental Research, vol. 46, no. 1–5, pp. 71–74, 1998.
[26]
D. Mergler, M. Baldwin, S. Belanger et al., “Manganese neurotoxicity, a continuum of dysfunction: results from a community based study,” NeuroToxicology, vol. 20, no. 2-3, pp. 327–342, 1999.
[27]
H. K. Allen, J. Donato, H. H. Wang, K. A. Cloud-Hansen, J. Davies, and J. Handelsman, “Call of the wild: Antibiotic resistance genes in natural environments,” Nature Reviews Microbiology, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 251–259, 2010.
[28]
E. M. H. Wellington, A. B. A. Boxall, P. Cross et al., “The role of the natural environment in the emergence of antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria,” The Lancet Infectious Diseases Review, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 155–165, 2013.
