How Often Are Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Said to "Evolve" in the News?

Bridging the gap: Introducing a socio-cultural dimension to explain beliefs about man-made threats

The belief gap hypothesis focuses on why individuals differ in beliefs about the causes and consequences of issues despite expert consensus. Offering ideological rationalization and media use as an explanation for diverting beliefs, it, so far, has focused on ideological priors that describe traditional socio-economic cleavages-even if scientific and environmental issues go beyond monetary questions. In this study, we aim to counter this shortcoming by introducing a socio-cultural dimension of ideology to research on the belief gap hypothesis. Comparing two issues of man-made threats-climate change and antimicrobial resistance-and emphasizing more strongly the role of media use for belief gaps, we find that a socio-cultural dimension of ideology serves as a better predictor for diverting beliefs about climate change but not for antimicrobial resistance. In contrast to left-leaning media, using right-leaning media outlets widens climate change belief gaps.

Drivers of global media attention and representations for antimicrobial resistance risk: an analysis of online English and Chinese news media data, 2015-2018

BACKGROUND

How antimicrobial resistance (AMR) risk is communicated in news media can shape public understanding and the engagement of different sectors with AMR. This study examined online news media attention for AMR risk and analyzed how AMR risk was communicated using a global sample of English and Chinese news articles.

METHODS

A total of 16,265 and 8335 English and Chinese news relevant to AMR risk, respectively, published in 2015-2018 were retrieved from a professional media-monitoring platform, to examine media attention for AMR and its drivers, of which, 788 articles from six main English-speaking countries and three main Chinese-speaking territories were drawn using constructed-week sampling for content analysis.

RESULTS

Media attention mainly fluctuated around official reports or scientific discovery of AMR risks or solutions but seldom around reports of inappropriate antimicrobial use (AMU), and not consistently increased in response to World Antimicrobial Awareness Week. The content analysis found that (1) heterogeneous medical terminologies and the 'superbug' frame were most commonly used to define AMR or AMR risk; (2) a temporal increase in communicating microbial evolution as a process of AMR was identified but communication about inappropriate AMU in general consumers as the cause of AMR remained inadequate; and (3) the multifaceted consequences of AMR and individual actions that can be taken to tackle AMR were inadequately communicated.

CONCLUSIONS

The media should be encouraged or reoriented to communicate more about actions that can be taken by general consumers to enable collective actions and the multifaceted conseuqences of AMR to encourage one-health approach for tackling AMR.

Epigenomics, genomics, resistome, mobilome, virulome and evolutionary phylogenomics of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical strains

Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) remains a major clinical pathogen and public health threat with few therapeutic options. The mobilome, resistome, methylome, virulome and phylogeography of CRKP in South Africa and globally were characterized. CRKP collected in 2018 were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing, screening by multiplex PCR, genotyping by repetitive element palindromic (REP)-PCR, plasmid size, number, incompatibility and mobility analyses, and PacBio's SMRT sequencing (n=6). There were 56 multidrug-resistant CRKP, having blaOXA-48-like and blaNDM-1/7 carbapenemases on self-transmissible IncF, A/C, IncL/M and IncX3 plasmids endowed with prophages, traT, resistance islands, and type I and II restriction modification systems (RMS). Plasmids and clades detected in this study were respectively related to globally established/disseminated plasmids clades/clones, evincing transboundary horizontal and vertical dissemination. Reduced susceptibility to colistin occurred in 23 strains. Common clones included ST307, ST607, ST17, ST39 and ST3559. IncFIIk virulent plasmid replicon was present in 56 strains. Whole-genome sequencing of six strains revealed least 41 virulence genes, extensive ompK36 mutations, and four different K- and O-loci types: KL2, KL25, KL27, KL102, O1, O2, O4 and O5. Types I, II and III RMS, conferring m6A (GATC, GATGNNNNNNTTG, CAANNNNNNCATC motifs) and m4C (CCWGG) modifications on chromosomes and plasmids, were found. The nature of plasmid-mediated, clonal and multi-clonal dissemination of blaOXA-48-like and blaNDM-1 mirrors epidemiological trends observed for closely related plasmids and sequence types internationally. Worryingly, the presence of both blaOXA-48 and blaNDM-1 in the same isolates was observed. Plasmid-mediated transmission of RMS, virulome and prophages influence bacterial evolution, epidemiology, pathogenicity and resistance, threatening infection treatment. The influence of RMS on antimicrobial and bacteriophage therapy needs urgent investigation.

What we know about media communication on antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance: A systematic review of the scientific literature

OBJECTIVE

Systematically review the literature regarding media communication about antibiotics and anti-microbial resistance (AMR) to synthesise its key characteristics and impact effectiveness, identifying gaps and areas for further research.

METHODS

A comprehensive systematic review covering five international databases for articles published between 1^st September 2008 and 1^st September 2018 was performed using the registered protocol (PROSPERO: CRD42018116464). The search using terms related to media communication and antibiotics or AMR yielded 19 eligible studies, which were analysed and qualitatively synthesised.

RESULTS

Research on media communication regarding antibiotics or AMR has rapidly increased in the last decade. 74% of studies used a media content analysis method, while the remaining studies collected data via surveys. Print media were examined in 53% (n = 10), with 74% (n = 14) focused on English language media.

CONCLUSION

Currently, knowledge regarding media communication of antibiotics and AMR is very restricted to English-speaking print media. Further research is required to understand communication on this topic from other media (types and geographical regions) as well as how media effects attitude and behaviour change.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Better understanding of media communication regarding antibiotics and AMR may be crucial for policymakers and public health experts when planning strategies to tackle this issue.

Antibiotic resistance ofKlebsiella pneumoniae through β-arrestin recruitment-induced β-lactamase signaling pathway

Overuse and misuse of antibiotics leads to rapid evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes. Klebsiella pneumoniae has become the most common pathogenic bacterium accountable for nosocomial infections due to its high virulence factor and general occurrence of resistance to most antibiotics. The β-lactamase signaling pathway has been suggested to be involved in antibiotic resistance against β-lactams in Klebsiella pneumoniae. In the present study, the molecular mechanism of the antibiotic resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae was investigated and the results indicated involvement of the β-arrestin recruitment-induced β-lactamase signaling pathway. Antimicrobial susceptibility of Klebsiella pneumoniae was assessed using automated systems and extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and β-arrestin expression levels in Klebsiella pneumoniae were analyzed by reverse-transcription quantitative PCR. β-lactam resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae was determined using β-lactam agar screening plates. The results demonstrated that β-arrestin recruitment was increased in Klebsiella pneumoniae with antibiotic resistance (AR-K.P.) compared with that in the native Klebsiella pneumoniae strain (NB-K.P.). Increased production of ESBL was observed in AR-K.P. after treatment with the β-lactam penicillin. Of note, inhibition of β-arrestin recruitment significantly suppressed ESBL expression in AR-K.P. and in addition, genes encoding β-arrestin and ESBL were upregulated in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Restoration of endogenous β-arrestin markedly increased antibiotic resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae to β-lactam. Knockdown of endogenous β-arrestin downregulated antibiotic resistance genes and promoted the inhibitory effects of β-lactam antibiotic treatment on Klebsiella pneumoniae growth. In conclusion, the present study identified that β-arrestin recruitment was associated with growth and resistance to β-lactams, which suggested that β-arrestin regulating ESBL expression may be a potential target for addressing antibiotic resistance to β-lactams in Klebsiella pneumoniae.

A systematic review of differential rate of use of the word “evolve” across fields

Background

Although evolution is the driving force behind many of today’s major public health and agriculture issues, both journalists and scientific researchers often do not use the term “evolve” in discussions of these topics.

Methods

In a total of 1,066 articles and 716 papers selected from 25 US newspapers and 34 scientific journals, we assess usage of the word “evolve” and its substitute words in the contexts of cancer tumor drug resistance, HIV drug resistance, mosquito insecticide resistance, and weed pesticide resistance.

Results

We find significant differences in the use of “evolve” among fields and sources. “Evolve” is used most when discussing weed pesticide resistance (25.9% in newspapers, 52.4% in journals) and least when discussing cancer tumor drug resistance (3.9% in newspapers, 9.8% in journals). On average, scientific journals use “evolve” more often (22.2%) than newspapers (7.8%). Different types of journals (general science, general clinical, cancer specific, and drug resistance specific) show significantly different “evolve” usages when discussing cancer tumor drug resistance.

Discussion

We examine potential explanations of these findings, such as the relatively recent framing of cancer in evolutionary terms, before looking at consequences of low “evolve” usage and of differential “evolve” usage across fields. Use of the word “evolve” may not reflect current understanding of the problems we examine. However, given that our ability to tackle resistance issues relies upon accurate understandings of what causes and exacerbates resistance, use of the word “evolve” when called for may help us confront these issues in the future.