Antibiotic body burden of elderly Chinese population and health risk assessment: A human biomonitoring-based study

Highlight：本研究采用液相色谱-电喷雾串联质谱法监测中国皖西地区990名老年人尿液中45种代表性的抗生素和2种代谢物。

Abstract

Limited biomonitoring studies have demonstrated an extensive exposure of different populations to antibiotics, but antibiotic body burden and the potential health risks in the Chinese elderly population remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated 990 elderly(aged 60 years and over)from the Cohort of Elderly Health and Environment Controllable Factors in West Anhui of China. Then, 45 representative antibiotics and 2 metabolites were monitored in urines by liquid chromatography electrospray tandem mass spectrometry. The results revealed that 34 antibiotics were overall detected in 93.0% of all urine samples and the detection frequencies of each antibiotic varied between 0.2% and 35.5%. The overall detection frequencies of 7 human antibiotics(HAs), 10 veterinary antibiotics(V As), 3 antibiotics preferred as HA(PHAs)and 14 preferred as V A(PV As)in urines were 27.4%, 62.9%, 30.9% and 72.7%, respectively. Notably, the samples with the concentrations of 6 PV As(sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, oxytetracycline, danofloxacin, norfloxacin and lincomycin)above 5.0 × 10 3 ng/mL account for 1.7% of total urine samples. Besides, in the remaining 62.7% of urine samples, the total antibiotic concentration was in the range of the limits of detection(LODs)to 20.0 ng/mL. Furthermore, the elderly with the sum of estimated daily intake(EDI)of V As and PV As more than 1 µg/kg/day accounted for 15.2% of all participants, and 6.7% of the elderly might 3 under a health risk related to the gut microbiota changing under antibiotics stimulation. Especially, ciprofloxacin was the foremost contributor to the health risk and its hazard quotient value more than 1 was seen in 3.5% of all subjects. Taken together, the Chinese elderly were extensively exposed to veterinary antibiotics and some elderly may under a health risk linked to dysbiosis of the gut microbiota.

Capsule : 34 antibiotics were detected in 93% urines of 990 elderly and health risk related to gut microbiota was revealed in 6.7% of the elderly.

Zhu Y^#, Liu K^#, Zhang J, Liu X, Yang L, Wei R, Wang S, Zhang D, Xie S, Tao F*. Antibiotic body burden of elderly Chinese population and health risk assessment: A human biomonitoring-based study[J]. Environ Pollut, 2020, 256:113311.