Antimicrobial resistance

In this issue, we present a series of short overviews on important topics with a common theme. In their paper, Djordjevic and Morgan point out the impact of antimicrobial resistance on food security and remind us of the importance of understanding the relationships between animals (including humans) and the environment when considering antibiotic resistance, particularly those elements of it that are part of normal genomic plasticity and readily transferable. This sentiment is echoed in a sobering description of the classic post-antibiotic opportunist, Clostridium difficile, in Australia and overseas, by Hong et al.

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Antibiotic resistance gene load and irrigation intensity determine the impact of wastewater irrigation on antimicrobial resistance in the soil microbiome

Water Research ◽

10.1016/j.watres.2021.116818 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 116818

Author(s):

Ioannis D. Kampouris ◽

Shelesh Agrawal ◽

Laura Orschler ◽

Damiano Cacace ◽

Steffen Kunze ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Antibiotic Resistance ◽

Antimicrobial Resistance ◽

Resistance Gene ◽

Antibiotic Resistance Gene ◽

Wastewater Irrigation ◽

Soil Microbiome ◽

Irrigation Intensity ◽

The Impact

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Withdraw of prophylactic antimicrobials does not change resistome in pigs

10.21203/rs.2.18011/v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Maria Fernanda Loayza Villa ◽

Alejandro Torres ◽

Lixin Zhang ◽

Gabriel Trueba

Keyword(s):

Antibiotic Resistance ◽

Antimicrobial Resistance ◽

Resistance Genes ◽

Resistant Bacteria ◽

Productive Performance ◽

Fitness Costs ◽

Antibiotic Resistant ◽

Human Microbiota ◽

Antimicrobial Resistance Genes ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background: The use of antimicrobials in the animal industry has increased the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria and antimicrobial-resistance genes which can be transferred to human microbiota through the food chain or the environment. To reduce the influx of antibiotic-resistance to the human microbiota, restrictions on antimicrobials (in food animals) have been implemented in different countries. We investigated the impact of an antimicrobial restriction on the frequency of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in pigs (PCI 1050) from an Ecuadorian farm. Results: No differences in antimicrobial resistant coliforms or antimicrobial resistance genes (richness and abundance) were found when we compared animals fed with or without antibiotics. Nevertheless, the absence of antimicrobials in pigs didn’t impact the productive performance of animals. Conclusion: Fitness costs of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria within intestinal microbiota of animals seems to be overestimated. Avoiding antimicrobials as prophylactics in pigs fed is not enough to control maintenance and spread of antimicrobial resistance.

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Educational Activities for Students and Citizens Supporting the One-Health Approach on Antimicrobial Resistance

Antibiotics ◽

10.3390/antibiotics10121519 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 1519

Author(s):

Massimiliano Marvasi ◽

Lilliam Casillas ◽

Alberto Vassallo ◽

Diane Purchase

Keyword(s):

Antibiotic Resistance ◽

Antimicrobial Resistance ◽

Formal Education ◽

One Health ◽

Health Food ◽

Current Crisis ◽

Wide Audience ◽

Human Environment ◽

The One ◽

The Impact

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development. Urgent action is needed at all levels of society to reduce the impact and spread of antibiotic resistance. For a more sustaining approach, education in children, college students, citizens and caregivers are essential. The One-Heath approach is a collaborative, multisectoral and transdisciplinary strategy in which, no single organizations or sector can address the issue of antimicrobial resistance at the human–environment interface alone. Within this strategy, education plays a central role. In this scoping review, we highlighted a range of learning activities on antibiotic resistance as part of the One-Health approach. In particular, those applications that can be introduced to a wide audience to help arrest the current crisis for the next generation. The review identifies a high number of teaching opportunities: board and role-play games, round tables, musicals, e-learning and environmental experiments to couple with more curricula and formal education to inform a diverse group of audiences.

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Environmental Biofilms as Reservoirs for Antimicrobial Resistance

Frontiers in Microbiology ◽

10.3389/fmicb.2021.766242 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Gabriela Flores-Vargas ◽

Jordyn Bergsveinson ◽

John R. Lawrence ◽

Darren R. Korber

Keyword(s):

Antibiotic Resistance ◽

Antimicrobial Resistance ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Resistant Bacteria ◽

Chemical Cue ◽

Knowledge Gaps ◽

Antibiotic Concentration ◽

Antibiotic Resistant ◽

Low Concentrations ◽

The Impact

Characterizing the response of microbial communities to a range of antibiotic concentrations is one of the strategies used to understand the impact of antibiotic resistance. Many studies have described the occurrence and prevalence of antibiotic resistance in microbial communities from reservoirs such as hospitals, sewage, and farm feedlots, where bacteria are often exposed to high and/or constant concentrations of antibiotics. Outside of these sources, antibiotics generally occur at lower, sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations (sub-MICs). The constant exposure to low concentrations of antibiotics may serve as a chemical “cue” that drives development of antibiotic resistance. Low concentrations of antibiotics have not yet been broadly described in reservoirs outside of the aforementioned environments, nor is the transfer and dissemination of antibiotic resistant bacteria and genes within natural microbial communities fully understood. This review will thus focus on low antibiotic-concentration environmental reservoirs and mechanisms that are important in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance to help identify key knowledge gaps concerning the environmental resistome.

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Antibiotic Resistance: A Global, Interdisciplinary Concern

The American Biology Teacher ◽

10.1525/abt.2011.73.6.3 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 73 (6) ◽

pp. 314-321 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Richard A. Stein

Keyword(s):

Antibiotic Resistance ◽

Antimicrobial Resistance ◽

Environmental Science ◽

Clinical Medicine ◽

Antibiotic Use ◽

Global Perspective ◽

Interdisciplinary Framework ◽

Resistant Strains ◽

Effective Use ◽

The Impact

This article presents a brief overview of the impact that antibiotic use in clinical medicine and in other settings, such as agriculture and animal farming, exerts on antimicrobial resistance. Resistance has been described to all antibiotics that are currently in use, and resistant strains were sometimes reported as soon as months after specific antibiotics became commercially available. There are many examples in which the increasing prevalence of resistant microbial strains jeopardized the continuing effective use of the respective antibiotics in clinical medicine. In addition to resistant infections that occur in health-care establishments, one of the recent challenges is the emergence of pathogens, such as MRSA, in the community, among individuals without any apparent risk factors for the infection. The transmission of resistant pathogens and antimicrobial resistance determinants across different components of the ecosystem transforms antibiotic resistance into a topic that extends beyond the scope of clinical medicine and needs to be visualized through an integrated global perspective that should incorporate a broad range of disciplines, including molecular genetics, microbiology, food science, ecology, agriculture, and environmental science. Understanding this complex multi- and interdisciplinary framework will enable the implementation of the most appropriate interventions toward determining the dynamics of antimicrobial resistance, limiting the emergence and spread of resistant strains, and ensuring the ongoing effective and safe use of antibiotics.

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Probiotics impact the antibiotic resistance gene reservoir along the human GI tract in a person-specific and antibiotic-dependent manner

Nature Microbiology ◽

10.1038/s41564-021-00920-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Emmanuel Montassier ◽

Rafael Valdés-Mas ◽

Eric Batard ◽

Niv Zmora ◽

Mally Dori-Bachash ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Antibiotic Resistance ◽

Antimicrobial Resistance ◽

Resistance Gene ◽

Resistance Genes ◽

Antibiotic Resistance Gene ◽

Dependent Manner ◽

Gi Tract ◽

Direct Sampling ◽

Antimicrobial Resistance Genes ◽

The Impact

AbstractAntimicrobial resistance poses a substantial threat to human health. The gut microbiome is considered a reservoir for potential spread of resistance genes from commensals to pathogens, termed the gut resistome. The impact of probiotics, commonly consumed by many in health or in conjunction with the administration of antibiotics, on the gut resistome is elusive. Reanalysis of gut metagenomes from healthy antibiotics-naïve humans supplemented with an 11-probiotic-strain preparation, allowing direct assessment of the gut resistome in situ along the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, demonstrated that probiotics reduce the number of antibiotic resistance genes exclusively in the gut of colonization-permissive individuals. In mice and in a separate cohort of humans, a course of antibiotics resulted in expansion of the lower GI tract resistome, which was mitigated by autologous faecal microbiome transplantation or during spontaneous recovery. In contrast, probiotics further exacerbated resistome expansion in the GI mucosa by supporting the bloom of strains carrying vancomycin resistance genes but not resistance genes encoded by the probiotic strains. Importantly, the aforementioned effects were not reflected in stool samples, highlighting the importance of direct sampling to analyse the effect of probiotics and antibiotics on the gut resistome. Analysing antibiotic resistance gene content in additional published clinical trials with probiotics further highlighted the importance of person-specific metagenomics-based profiling of the gut resistome using direct sampling. Collectively, these findings suggest opposing person-specific and antibiotic-dependent effects of probiotics on the resistome, whose contribution to the spread of antimicrobial resistance genes along the human GI tract merit further studies.

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