The research status, potential hazards and toxicological mechanisms of fluoroquinolone antibiotics in the environment

Abstract Fluoroquinolone antibioticsare widely used in pharmaceuticals and personal care products due to their disease treatment, growth promotion, and prophylaxis, which lead to increasing biological exposure to fluoroquinolones in the global environment. This paper recapitulates the occurrence, fate, and ecotoxicity of fluoroquinolone antibiotics in various environmental media. The toxicity effect and mechanism are also reviewed based on in vitro and in vivo experiments, referring to many organisms, such as microorganisms, cells, higher plants, land and aquatic animals. The combined toxicity effect and coexisting characteristics of fluoroquinolone antibiotics absorbed with other chemicals to organisms in various environmental matrices are also summarized. The current knowledge gaps, further research interests and toxicity mechanisms of fluoroquinolone antibiotics in the environment have been discussed in this research.