Determination of Heavy Metal Content: Arsenic, Cadmium, Mercury, and Lead in Cyano-Phycocyanin Isolated from the Cyanobacterial Biomass
Daiva Galinytė,
Gabrielė Balčiūnaitė-Murzienė,
Jūratė Karosienė,
Dmitrij Morudov,
Rima Naginienė,
Dalė Baranauskienė,
Jurgita Šulinskienė,
Ieva Kudlinskienė,
Arūnas Savickas,
Nijolė Savickienė
Affiliations
Daiva Galinytė
Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Academy of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu Av. 13, 50162 Kaunas, Lithuania
Gabrielė Balčiūnaitė-Murzienė
Faculty of Pharmacy, Institute of Pharmaceutical Technologies, Academy of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu Av. 13, 50162 Kaunas, Lithuania
Jūratė Karosienė
Laboratory of Algology and Microbial Ecology, Nature Research Centre, Akademijos St. 2, 08412 Vilnius, Lithuania
Dmitrij Morudov
Laboratory of Algology and Microbial Ecology, Nature Research Centre, Akademijos St. 2, 08412 Vilnius, Lithuania
Rima Naginienė
Laboratory of Toxicology, Neurosciences Institute, Academy of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Eivenių Str. 4, 50161 Kaunas, Lithuania
Dalė Baranauskienė
Laboratory of Toxicology, Neurosciences Institute, Academy of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Eivenių Str. 4, 50161 Kaunas, Lithuania
Jurgita Šulinskienė
Laboratory of Toxicology, Neurosciences Institute, Academy of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Eivenių Str. 4, 50161 Kaunas, Lithuania
Ieva Kudlinskienė
JSC “Naujasis Nevėžis”, Jiesios St. 2, 53288 Ilgakiemis, Lithuania
Arūnas Savickas
Department of Drug Technology and Social Pharmacy, Academy of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu Av. 13, 50162 Kaunas, Lithuania
Nijolė Savickienė
Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Academy of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu Av. 13, 50162 Kaunas, Lithuania
Cyano-phycocyanin (C-PC) is a light-absorbing biliprotein found in cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae. Due to its antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties, this protein is a promising substance in medicine and pharmaceuticals. However, cyanobacteria tend to bind heavy metals from the environment, making it necessary to ensure the safety of C-PC for the development of pharmaceutical products, with C-PC isolated from naturally collected cyanobacterial biomass. This study aimed to determine the content of the most toxic heavy metals, arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb) in C-PC isolated from different cyanobacterial biomasses collected in the Kaunas Lagoon during 2019–2022, and compare them with the content of heavy metals in C-PC isolated from cultivated Spirulina platensis (S. platensis). Cyanobacteria of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (A. flos-aquae) dominated the biomass collected in 2019, while the genus Microcystis dominated the biomasses collected in the years 2020 and 2022. Heavy metals were determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). ICP-MS analysis revealed higher levels of the most investigated heavy metals (Pb, Cd, and As) in C-PC isolated from the biomass with the dominant Microcystis spp. compared to C-PC isolated from the biomass with the predominant A. flos-aquae. Meanwhile, C-PC isolated from cultivated S. platensis exhibited lower concentrations of As and Pb than C-PC isolated from naturally collected cyanobacterial biomass.
