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Biocatalytic strategies for the degradation of emerging micropollutants: From nanoplastics to pharmaceuticals
Summary
Researchers demonstrated that specific bacteria can break down both nanoplastics and common pharmaceuticals such as paracetamol and ibuprofen, which frequently contaminate waterways. Encasing these bacteria in alginate beads improved their stability and reusability, pointing toward practical bioremediation tools for tackling multiple classes of emerging pollutants simultaneously.
The increasing presence of micropollutants such as nanoplastics, microplastics, and pharmaceuticals poses a growing environmental concern. While enzymatic degradation strategies show promise, extending their application beyond PET plastics and fully elucidating pharmaceutical degradation pathways remains challenging. This work focuses on widely used pharmaceuticals—paracetamol, enalapril, ibuprofen, and atenolol—frequently detected in aquatic environments. We demonstrate the degradation capacity of bacteria from the genera Alcanivorax, Paraburkholderia, and Pseudomonas. Additionally, an alginate-based immobilization strategy enables complete paracetamol degradation while improving stability, reusability, and process efficiency.