Effect of cytostatic drugs on microbial behaviour in membrane bioreactor system

The aim of this work is to evaluate the influence of cyclophosphamide and its principal metabolites (CPs) on microbial behaviour in a membrane bioreactor system. Two laboratory-scale membrane bioreactors (MBR) were run in parallel with a sludge retention time of 70 days (one with the cytostatic drugs, MBR-CPs, the second without, MBR-control). The microbial activity was measured by respirometric analysis. The endogenous and exogenous respirations of heterotrophic micro-organisms were evaluated. Micro-organisms exposed to CPs showed higher endogenous respiration rates and lower exogenous respiration rates than micro-organisms present in MBR-control. The effects were observed several days after adding the cocktail. Reduced sludge production was observed in MBR-CPs compared to MBR-control. This reduction of sludge production and the increase in the endogenous respiration rate in relation to MBR-control suggest that the chemical stress caused by CPs led to a diversion of carbon and/or energy from growth to adaptive responses and protection. In addition, the inhibitory effect on the assimilation of exogenous substrate (reduced exogenous respiration rate) suggests an inhibition of catabolism and anabolism despite the low CPs concentration studied (μg/L). However, this inhibitory effect can be offset by the biomass still active under low ratio (substrate/biomass) conditions in the bioreactor (due to complete retention of biomass and high sludge age), which helped to maintain high overall performance in the removal of conventional pollution.