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Amábile-Cuevas CF. Antibiotic resistance: from Darwin to Lederberg to Keynes. Microb Drug Resist 2012; 19:73-87. [PMID: 23046150 DOI: 10.1089/mdr.2012.0115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria reflects both, a gradual, completely Darwinian evolution, which mostly yields slight decreases in antibiotic susceptibility, along with phenotypes that are not precisely characterized as "resistance"; and sudden changes, from full susceptibility to full resistance, which are driven by a vast array of horizontal gene transfer mechanisms. Antibiotics select for more than just antibiotic resistance (i.e., increased virulence and enhanced gene exchange abilities); and many non-antibiotic agents or conditions select for or maintain antibiotic resistance traits as a result of a complex network of underlying and often overlapping mechanisms. Thus, the development of new antibiotics and thoughtful, integrated anti-infective strategies is needed to address the immediate and long-term threat of antibiotic resistance. Since the biology of resistance is complex, these new drugs and strategies will not come from free-market forces, or from "incentives" for pharmaceutical companies.
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Mathers JJ, Flick SC, Cox LA. Longer-duration uses of tetracyclines and penicillins in U.S. food-producing animals: Indications and microbiologic effects. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2011; 37:991-1004. [PMID: 21435723 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2011.01.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2010] [Revised: 01/26/2011] [Accepted: 01/27/2011] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
We review and analyze regulatory categories for longer duration of use (defined as ≥ 7 day) tetracyclines (TCs) and penicillins (PNs) approved for U.S. livestock and poultry, together with scientific studies, surveillance programs and risk assessments pertaining to antimicrobial resistance. Indications listed on a government database were grouped into three broad categories according to the terminology used to describe their use: disease control (C), treatment (T) and growth improvement (G). Consistent with mostly therapeutic uses, the majority (86%) of listed indications had C and/or T terms. Several studies showed interruption of early disease stages in animals and modulation of intestinal microflora. Longer-duration exposures are consistent with bacteriostatic modes of action, where adequate exposure time as well as concentration is needed for sufficient antimicrobial activity. Other effects identified included reduced animal pathogen prevalence, toxin formation, inflammation, environmental impacts, improved animal health, reproductive measures, nutrient utilization, and others. Several animal studies have shown a limited, dose-proportionate, selective increase in resistance prevalence among commensal animal bacteria following longer-duration exposures. Pathogen surveillance programs showed overall stable or declining resistance trends among sentinel bacteria. Quantitative, microbiologically detailed resistance risk assessments indicate small probabilities of human treatment failure due to resistance under current conditions. Evaluations of longer-duration uses of TCs, PNs, and other antimicrobial classes used in food-producing animals should consider mechanisms of activity, known individual- and population-level health and waste reduction effects in addition to resistance risks.
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Lau SK, Wong GK, Tsang AK, Teng JL, Fan RY, Tse H, Yuen KY, Woo PC. Virulence determinants, drug resistance and mobile genetic elements of Laribacter hongkongensis: a genome-wide analysis. Cell Biosci 2011; 1:17. [PMID: 21711902 PMCID: PMC3125207 DOI: 10.1186/2045-3701-1-17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2011] [Accepted: 04/19/2011] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Laribacter hongkongensis is associated with community-acquired gastroenteritis and traveler's diarrhea. In this study, we performed an in-depth annotation of the genes in its genome related to the various steps in the infective process, drug resistance and mobile genetic elements. RESULTS For acid and bile resistance, L. hongkongensis possessed a urease gene cassette, two arc gene clusters and bile salt efflux systems. For intestinal colonization, it possessed a putative adhesin of the autotransporter family homologous to those of diffusely adherent Escherichia coli (E. coli) and enterotoxigenic E. coli. To evade from host defense, it possessed superoxide dismutase and catalases. For lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis, it possessed the same set of genes that encode enzymes for synthesizing lipid A, two Kdo units and heptose units as E. coli, but different genes for its symmetrical acylation pattern, and nine genes for polysaccharide side chains biosynthesis. It contained a number of CDSs that encode putative cell surface acting (RTX toxin and hemolysins) and intracellular cytotoxins (patatin-like proteins) and enzymes for invasion (outer membrane phospholipase A). It contained a broad variety of antibiotic resistance-related genes, including genes related to β-lactam (n = 10) and multidrug efflux (n = 54). It also contained eight prophages, 17 other phage-related CDSs and 26 CDSs for transposases. CONCLUSIONS The L. hongkongensis genome possessed genes for acid and bile resistance, intestinal mucosa colonization, evasion of host defense and cytotoxicity and invasion. A broad variety of antibiotic resistance or multidrug resistance genes, a high number of prophages, other phage-related CDSs and CDSs for transposases, were also identified.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susanna Kp Lau
- State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Hong Kong.,Research Centre of Infection and Immunology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.,Carol Yu Centre of Infection, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.,Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Gilman Km Wong
- Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Alan Kl Tsang
- Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Jade Ll Teng
- Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Rachel Yy Fan
- Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Herman Tse
- State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Hong Kong.,Research Centre of Infection and Immunology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.,Carol Yu Centre of Infection, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.,Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Kwok-Yung Yuen
- State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Hong Kong.,Research Centre of Infection and Immunology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.,Carol Yu Centre of Infection, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.,Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Patrick Cy Woo
- State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Hong Kong.,Research Centre of Infection and Immunology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.,Carol Yu Centre of Infection, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.,Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
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Chee-Sanford JC, Mackie RI, Koike S, Krapac IG, Lin YF, Yannarell AC, Maxwell S, Aminov RI. Fate and transport of antibiotic residues and antibiotic resistance genes following land application of manure waste. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY 2009; 38:1086-108. [PMID: 19398507 DOI: 10.2134/jeq2008.0128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 473] [Impact Index Per Article: 31.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Antibiotics are used in animal livestock production for therapeutic treatment of disease and at subtherapeutic levels for growth promotion and improvement of feed efficiency. It is estimated that approximately 75% of antibiotics are not absorbed by animals and are excreted in waste. Antibiotic resistance selection occurs among gastrointestinal bacteria, which are also excreted in manure and stored in waste holding systems. Land application of animal waste is a common disposal method used in the United States and is a means for environmental entry of both antibiotics and genetic resistance determinants. Concerns for bacterial resistance gene selection and dissemination of resistance genes have prompted interest about the concentrations and biological activity of drug residues and break-down metabolites, and their fate and transport. Fecal bacteria can survive for weeks to months in the environment, depending on species and temperature, however, genetic elements can persist regardless of cell viability. Phylogenetic analyses indicate antibiotic resistance genes have evolved, although some genes have been maintained in bacteria before the modern antibiotic era. Quantitative measurements of drug residues and levels of resistance genes are needed, in addition to understanding the environmental mechanisms of genetic selection, gene acquisition, and the spatiotemporal dynamics of these resistance genes and their bacterial hosts. This review article discusses an accumulation of findings that address aspects of the fate, transport, and persistence of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in natural environments, with emphasis on mechanisms pertaining to soil environments following land application of animal waste effluent.
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Abstract
A new perspective on the topic of antibiotic resistance is beginning to emerge based on a broader evolutionary and ecological understanding rather than from the traditional boundaries of clinical research of antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens. Phylogenetic insights into the evolution and diversity of several antibiotic resistance genes suggest that at least some of these genes have a long evolutionary history of diversification that began well before the 'antibiotic era'. Besides, there is no indication that lateral gene transfer from antibiotic-producing bacteria has played any significant role in shaping the pool of antibiotic resistance genes in clinically relevant and commensal bacteria. Most likely, the primary antibiotic resistance gene pool originated and diversified within the environmental bacterial communities, from which the genes were mobilized and penetrated into taxonomically and ecologically distant bacterial populations, including pathogens. Dissemination and penetration of antibiotic resistance genes from antibiotic producers were less significant and essentially limited to other high G+C bacteria. Besides direct selection by antibiotics, there is a number of other factors that may contribute to dissemination and maintenance of antibiotic resistance genes in bacterial populations.
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Woo PCY, Lau SKP, Huang Y, Yuen KY. Genomic evidence for antibiotic resistance genes of actinomycetes as origins of antibiotic resistance genes in pathogenic bacteria simply because actinomycetes are more ancestral than pathogenic bacteria. Med Hypotheses 2006; 67:1297-304. [PMID: 16824692 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2005.12.053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2005] [Accepted: 12/16/2005] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Although in silico analysis have suggested that the antibiotic resistance genes in actinomycetes appear to be the origins of some antibiotic resistance genes, we have shown that recent horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes from actinomycetes to other medically important bacteria have not taken place. Although it has been speculated in Benveniste and Davies' attractive hypothesis that antibiotic resistance genes of actinomycetes are origins of antibiotic resistance genes in pathogenic bacteria because the actinomycetes require mechanisms such as metabolic enzymes (encoded by the antibiotic resistance genes) to degrade the antibiotics they produce or to transport the antibiotics outside the bacterial cells, this hypothesis has never been proven. Both the phylogenetic tree constructed using 16S rRNA gene sequences and that constructed using concatenated amino acid sequences of 15 housekeeping genes extracted from 90 bacterial genomes showed that the actinomycetes is more ancestral to most other bacteria, including the pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria, and Chlamydia species. Furthermore, the tetracycline resistance gene of Bifidobacterium longum is more ancestral to those of other pathogenic bacteria and the actinomycetes, which is in line with the ancestral position of B. longum. These suggest that the evolution of antibiotic resistance genes of antibiotic-producing bacteria in general parallels the evolution of the corresponding bacteria. The ancestral position of the antibiotic resistance genes in actinomycetes is probably unrelated to the fact that they produce antibiotics, but simply because actinomycetes are more ancestral than pathogenic bacteria.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick C Y Woo
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, University Pathology Building, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong
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Woegerbauer M, Lagler H, Graninger W, Burgmann H. DNA in antibiotic preparations: absence of intact resistance genes. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2005; 49:2490-4. [PMID: 15917552 PMCID: PMC1140494 DOI: 10.1128/aac.49.6.2490-2494.2005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2004] [Revised: 10/10/2004] [Accepted: 02/01/2005] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Fragments of erm(E2), otrA, and aph(6) shorter than 400 bp and producer strain-specific rRNA genes were amplified from various antibiotics. The amount of genetic material and the sizes of amplicons recovered from murine feces after oral administration of a beta-lactamase-encoding plasmid indicated substantial DNA degradation in the mammalian gastrointestinal tract. These observations imply that antibiotics are no major source for horizontal resistance gene transfer in clinical settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markus Woegerbauer
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine I, University of Vienna and Birkmayer Laboratories, Department of Research and Development, Schwarzspanierstrasse 15, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
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