New strategies for the removal of cytostatics from urine

Abstract

Cytostatics drugs such as Mycophenolate Mofetil (MMF), Mycophenolic acid (MPA) and Capecitabine (CAP) are used in the treatment of cancer and also to prevent organ rejection after hepatic, renal, and cardiac transplants. However, cytostatic drugs are highly toxic and thus their handling and disposal is a matter of great concern. Supported ionic liquids (SILs) are promising materials to remove target compounds from aqueous solutions, since they can be designed and tailored in order to remove specific compounds. In this work, several SILs were synthetized and their ability to remove the target cytostatic drugs from artificial urine wsa evaluated by completing a series of kinetics and isotherm studies. In parallel, the experiments were performed using active carbon (AC) as control. Some of the synthetized SILs showed higher adsorption rates when compared to AC, especially at shorter times of contact, namely [Si][N3888]Cl for the three cytostatics. Such promising results open the possibility to use these SILs as a filters to remove cytostatics from urine, avoiding they entrance into the environment