Selection of resistant bacteria at very low antibiotic concentrations.
Erik Gullberg,Sha Cao,Otto G. Berg,Carolina Ilbäck,Linus Sandegren,Diarmaid Hughes,Dan I. Andersson +6 more
TLDR
It is suggested that the low antibiotic concentrations found in many natural environments are important for enrichment and maintenance of resistance in bacterial populations.Abstract:
The widespread use of antibiotics is selecting for a variety of resistance mechanisms that seriously challenge our ability to treat bacterial infections. Resistant bacteria can be selected at the high concentrations of antibiotics used therapeutically, but what role the much lower antibiotic concentrations present in many environments plays in selection remains largely unclear. Here we show using highly sensitive competition experiments that selection of resistant bacteria occurs at extremely low antibiotic concentrations. Thus, for three clinically important antibiotics, drug concentrations up to several hundred-fold below the minimal inhibitory concentration of susceptible bacteria could enrich for resistant bacteria, even when present at a very low initial fraction. We also show that de novo mutants can be selected at sub-MIC concentrations of antibiotics, and we provide a mathematical model predicting how rapidly such mutants would take over in a susceptible population. These results add another dimension to the evolution of resistance and suggest that the low antibiotic concentrations found in many natural environments are important for enrichment and maintenance of resistance in bacterial populations.read more
Citations
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Antimicrobials and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria: A Risk to the Environment and to Public Health
TL;DR: This review aims to track the pathways of the environmental distribution of antimicrobials and identify the biological effects of their subinhibitory concentration in different environmental compartments and assesses the associated public health risk and government policy interventions needed to ensure the effectiveness of existing antimicroBials.
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Application of veterinary antibiotics in China's aquaculture industry and their potential human health risks.
TL;DR: It has been concluded that more information regarding the types and quantities of antibiotics used by Chinese fish farmers is required and studies about the contribution of antibiotic usage in aquaculture to environmental levels in surface water, their potential risks on environment and human health, and the existence and spread of antibiotic resistance genes in Aquaculture are needed.
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The role of operating parameters and oxidative damage mechanisms of advanced chemical oxidation processes in the combat against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes present in urban wastewater.
TL;DR: This review seeks to provide an extensive and critical appraisal on the assessment of the efficiency of these processes in inactivating ARB and removing ARGs in wastewater effluents, based on recent available scientific literature.
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Antimicrobials as promoters of genetic variation
TL;DR: Recent advances concerning the selection of naturally occurring resistant variants and horizontal gene transfer processes and their relevance in the field of antibiotic resistance are reviewed and discussed.
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Biochar as a sorbent for emerging contaminants enables improvements in waste management and sustainable resource use
Longcheng Li,Dongsheng Zou,Zhihua Xiao,Xinyi Zeng,Liqing Zhang,Longbo Jiang,Andong Wang,Dabing Ge,Guolin Zhang,Fen Liu +9 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide a summary of recent research on the underlying mechanisms controlling the presence of emerging contaminants in water, as well as their removal and the environmental treatment of soil by biochar.
References
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Dan I. Andersson,Diarmaid Hughes +1 more
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