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Antioxidant activity of humic substances via bioluminescent monitoring in vitro

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Abstract

This work considers antioxidant properties of natural detoxifying agents—humic substances (HS) in solutions of model inorganic and organic compounds of oxidative nature—complex salt K3[Fe(СN)6] and 1,4-benzoquinone. Bioluminescent system of coupled enzymatic reactions catalyzed by NAD(P)H:FMN-oxidoreductase and bacterial luciferase was used as a bioassay in vitro to monitor toxicity of the oxidizer solutions. Toxicities of general and oxidative types were evaluated using bioluminescent kinetic parameters—bioluminescence intensity and induction period, respectively. Antioxidant activity of HS was attributed to their ability to decrease both general and oxidative toxicities; the HS antioxidant efficiency was characterized with detoxification coefficients D GT and D OxT, respectively. Dependencies of D GT and D OxT on HS concentration and time of preliminary incubation of the oxidizers with HS were demonstrated. The optimal conditions for detoxification of the oxidizers were >20-min incubation time and 0.5 × 10−4 to 2 × 10−4 M of HS concentration. The present study promotes application of the enzymatic luminescent bioassay to monitor toxicity of pollutants of oxidative nature in environmental and waste waters in remediation procedures.

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Abbreviations

HS:

Humic substances

NADH:

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide disodium salt reduced

FMN:

Flavin mononucleotide

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Grant No. 15-03-06786a, the Program “Molecular and Cellular Biology” of the Russian Academy of Sciences, project VI 57.1.1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, 660041

    A. S. Tarasova & N. S. Kudryasheva

  2. Institute of Biophysics SB RAS, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, 660036

    A. S. Tarasova & N. S. Kudryasheva

  3. Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russia, 664003

    D. I. Stom

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  1. A. S. Tarasova
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Correspondence to N. S. Kudryasheva.

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Tarasova, A.S., Stom, D.I. & Kudryasheva, N.S. Antioxidant activity of humic substances via bioluminescent monitoring in vitro. Environ Monit Assess 187, 89 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-015-4304-1

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