(331f) Adsorption of Pfas from Human Plasma Using Zeolites

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are chemicals that have been produced since before the 1940s and have a wide range of uses in consumer and industrial products. While useful, these chemicals have earned their infamous name “forever chemicals”, due to their inherent stability arising from their carbon-fluorine bond. PFAS are extremely persistent in the body, notably in human plasma, at concentrations ranging from 1 to 5 ppb. These levels, coupled with the health risks associated with PFAS such as increased cholesterol levels and an increased risk of liver cancer, has prompted the need for further research on methods to remove PFAS from the body. Traditional sorbent materials, such as activated carbons and ion exchange resins, are already being used to study the removal of PFAS from contaminated water. However, they lack the specificity needed to work efficiently. Zeolites have been identified as sorbent materials successful in selectively removing PFAS from water, and therefore will be a good starting point for studying the adsorption of PFAS from human plasma. Zeolites have a wide range of pore openings, as well as tunable properties to make them ideal for removing a wide range of pollutants from the environment. Currently, there is very little research investigating zeolites for PFAS sorption in human plasma, but zeolites have been utilized in other medical applications such as wound healing and drug delivery. For this project, the quantification of PFAS in human plasma will be studied using LC-MS/MS analysis. After first proving that PFAS can be successfully measured in plasma, the efficacy of adsorbents to remove PFAS from human plasma samples will be tested.