Enhanced stability and reusability of metagenomic laccase via immobilization on functionalized mesoporous silica for antibiotic contaminant removal.
Ariaeenejad S, Abedanzadeh S
Soil Health
Antibiotic runoff from farms soaks into the soil and waterways you use to grow food, disrupting the beneficial soil microbes that keep gardens and crops healthy — and this technology offers a path to cleaning that water before it does lasting damage.
Antibiotic drugs used in farming wash into rivers and soil, where they linger and harm the tiny organisms that plants depend on to thrive. Scientists found a natural enzyme — discovered by mining DNA from environmental samples — that can break these antibiotics down. By locking the enzyme onto tiny silica beads, they made it stable enough to be reused many times without losing its cleaning power.
Key Findings
The immobilized enzyme removed 76.7% of doxycycline and 53.7% of tetracycline from water within 24 hours.
After 10 consecutive reuse cycles, the system retained over 83% of its doxycycline-degrading activity and 73% for tetracycline.
Enzyme leaching was very low (9.6% at room temperature), making the system practical for repeated real-world use.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers engineered a reusable enzyme system that breaks down antibiotic pollution in water. By attaching a soil-microbe-derived enzyme to specialized silica particles, they achieved over 75% removal of doxycycline and sustained performance across 10 reuse cycles — a meaningful step toward practical, low-cost water cleanup.
Abstract Preview
The extensive application of tetracycline antibiotics in agriculture and medicine has led to persistent contamination of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, disrupting microbial communities and con...
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