Towards discovery of inhibitors of the undecaprenyl-pyrophosphate phosphatase BacA by virtual high-throughput screening

Antipsychotic quetiapine alters the mouse fecal resistome by impacting antibiotic efflux, cell membrane, and cell wall synthesis genes

IMPORTANCE

This study significantly contributes to our understanding of how certain medications can unintentionally contribute to a major global health issue, i.e., antibiotic resistance. Quetiapine, a widely used antipsychotic medication, was found to increase key resistance mechanisms of gut bacteria to antibiotics in mice. Specifically, these data suggest that quetiapine may target elements of the bacterial cell membrane. If similar effects are found in humans, this medicine could unexpectedly make it harder to treat certain infections. This research emphasizes the importance of being mindful about not just antibiotics themselves, but also about other medications that could inadvertently contribute to this problem. Ultimately, these findings underline the necessity for more in-depth research on the broader impact of pharmaceuticals.

Metagenomic insights into the antibiotic resistomes of typical Chinese dairy farm environments

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment pose a threat to human and animal health. Dairy cows are important livestock in China; however, a comprehensive understanding of antibiotic resistance in their production environment has not been well clarified. In this study, we used metagenomic methods to analyze the resistomes, microbiomes, and potential ARG bacterial hosts in typical dairy farm environments (including feces, wastewater, and soil). The ARGs resistant to tetracyclines, MLS, β-lactams, aminoglycoside, and multidrug was dominant in the dairy farm ecosystem. The abundance and diversity of total ARGs in dairy feces and wastewater were significantly higher than in soil (P < 0.05). The same environmental samples from different dairy have similar resistomes and microbiomes. A high detection rate of tet(X) in wastewater and feces (100% and 71.4%, respectively), high abundance (range from 5.74 to 68.99 copies/Gb), and the finding of tet(X5) challenged the clinical application of the last antibiotics resort of tigecycline. Network analysis identified Bacteroides as the dominant genus in feces and wastewater, which harbored the greatest abundance of their respective total ARG coverage and shared ARGs. These results improved our understanding of ARG profiles and their bacterial hosts in dairy farm environments and provided a basis for further surveillance.