Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) estimates collective consumption or exposure to chemicals or pathogens by tracking the substances excreted in the population's wastewater. Up till now he protein composition of wastewater was practically unknown until now. MS approaches based on HR-MS and MALDI–TOF-MS were used to detect the presence in urban sewage waters of proteins from diverse origins, including human proteins such as uromodulin, α-amylase, and S100A8, which have been proposed as health markers associated with renal function or stress-related changes . Wastewater protein composition in 10 WWTP in Catalonia which serve communities of different population and industrial profile will be shown. Up to 100 mL of water samples were filtered and the soluble part was concentrated in a SDS-PAGE gel. MALDI-TOF-MS (4800 TOF/TOF) and by HR-LC-MS/MS (Orbitrap-Velos) coupled to nanoLC separation) were used. Proteome Discoverer software and a semiquantitative analysis was performed based on the area of the unique peptides of each protein. We have been able to identify hundreds of proteins from different species including human. The molecules of human origin present in wastewater come mainly from feces and urine and are transported in the sewage system along with many other compounds. Thus, wastewater is part of a complex universe of biochemical signals that represent the population served by a specific water collection system. In addition, the analysis of the protein profile of other species (rat, mouse, cattle, pigs, poultry) has allowed us to find markers on industrial activity in the different areas studied (Fig.1). Monitoring large molecules that could serve as human biomarkers in wastewater is an important new contribution to the WBE field and as a useful complementary tool to the well-known small molecule approach globally used.

Environmental proteomics in wastewater-based epidemiology (EP-WBE): Identification of large biomolecules as biomarkers of public health and industrial activities

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ACS Fall 2022

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