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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Antibiotic tolerance facilitates the evolution of resistance.
TL;DR: In vitro evolution experiments found that in all cases, tolerance preceded resistance, and a mathematical population-genetics model showed how tolerance boosts the chances for resistance mutations to spread in the population.
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Fluoroquinolone resistance: mechanisms, impact on bacteria, and role in evolutionary success
TL;DR: The impacts of quinolone-resistance mutations in relation to the fitness and evolutionary success of mutant strains are outlined.
Journal ArticleDOI
Environmental factors influencing the development and spread of antibiotic resistance
TL;DR: This work attempts to define the ecological and evolutionary environmental factors that contribute to resistance development and transmission and investigates under what conditions and to what extent environmental selection for resistance takes place.
Journal ArticleDOI
Antimicrobial use in aquaculture re‐examined: its relevance to antimicrobial resistance and to animal and human health
Felipe C. Cabello,Henry P. Godfrey,Alexandra Tomova,Larisa Ivanova,Humberto Dölz,Ana R. Millanao,Alejandro H. Buschmann +6 more
TL;DR: Excessive use of antimicrobials in aquaculture can potentially negatively impact animal and human health as well as the aquatic environment and should be better assessed and regulated.
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Human health risk assessment of antibiotic resistance associated with antibiotic residues in the environment: A review.
TL;DR: A holistic view of health risk assessment of antibiotic resistance associated with antibiotic residues in the environment in contrast with that of the antibiotic resistant bacteria is provided and the main knowledge gaps and the future research that should be prioritized to achieve the quantitative risk assessment are discussed.
References
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Dan I. Andersson,Diarmaid Hughes +1 more
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