We invite you to the second SEARCHER Webinar coming up on May 22nd 2024 at 2PM CET.
We will be discussing AMR and One Health perspectives together with Katharina Schauffler and Emmanuel Nnadi, with Victor Hugo Jarquín-Díaz as the moderator.
Next week is the beginning of the reboot of the EMBARK webinar series, now rebranded the SEARCHER webinars. For the first webinar, we will have Álvaro San Millan talking about the ecology and evolution of plasmid-mediated carbapenem resistance. He will be accompanied by our own Uli Klümper who will talk about the rates and rivers of plasmid transfer. Join us for this exciting webinar on April 14 at 14:30 CEST. Register here!
More on the rest of the webinar series for 2024 will be posted on this site shorty!
The final AMR Digest of 2023 features microbial wars and weaponry evolution, “plastisphere” as a new home for bacterial communities, inter-phylum ARGs exchange, peculiarities of honeybee and stray cats microbiota, and how the distance that your steak travels before ending-up on your plate is related to MDR contamination. And much more!
Inter-phylum circulation of a beta-lactamase – encoding gene: a rare but observable event – Rémi Gschwind, Marie Petitjean, Claudine Fournier, Julie Lao, Olivier Clermont, Patrice Nordmann, Alexander Mellmann, Erick Denamur, Laurent Poirel, Etienne Ruppé – bioRxiv preprint *While transfer of beta-lactamase encoding genes typically occurs between closely-related bacteria, the research documents a unique case of inter-phylum transfer between the Peudomonadota and Bacteroidota phyla. The investigation focuses on an extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-encoding gene, blaMUN-1, from an Escherichia coli strain. This study marks the first reported instance of inter-phylum transfer of an ESBL-encoding gene, indicating that while inter-phylum barriers are generally robust, they are not insurmountable.
How does exposure to different hosts affect evolution of bacterial genes on mobile elements? In @MolBioEvol, @livkosterlitz et al use barcode methods to compare adaptive landscapes across species & show alignment enables a form of adaptive “crowdsourcing”🧵https://t.co/oTISNGQjuZ
Figure 1: Microbial dynamics and spatial organization in the honeybee gut. Honeybees are key pollinators and have a long history of domestication for wax and honey production. Recently, they have emerged as models for studying gut microbial communities.
The October AMR Digest brings a variety of discussions to the table, covering the realm of AMR through different scopes. It sheds light on the role of genomic surveillance, the interactions between humans and their environment in the context of AMR, and presents potential alternative therapeutic avenues against drug-resistant pathogens. The digest also touches on the importance of accurate antimicrobial use, intriguing findings from wastewater treatment plant studies, and the potential of leveraging technology to combat AMR. Through a blend of clinical, environmental, and technological perspectives, the digest offers a broad view on the current strides in the AMR landscape.
Our monthly EMBARK Webinar for November is titled “Ecology and evolution of ARGs: From surveillance to intervention strategies” with Prof. Craig MacLean & Prof. Sofia K. Forslund, moderated by Ulrike Löber .
During the autumn session we will discuss #AMR with @bonnedahl (PAIRWISE) – September 13@GCAGATGCAATG (STRESST) – October 11@CraigMacLean9 (MOB-TARGET) – November 15
Do substandard and falsified medicines have any role in the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance? In this recent paper, we discussed this relationship in the midst of many unknowns. https://t.co/LPkPLA3mP2.
*The authors of this paper underscores the importance of an integrated ‘One Health’ approach for monitoring and managing AMR. They point out the potential of genomic technologies in understanding and tracing the dynamics of AMR ecology. The text highlights recent advancements in genomic AMR surveillance, discusses the strengths of various technologies, and contemplates the challenges in broader adoption.
New work out in @npjAMR!✨@IN_LOGan_PHASE et al. generated a panel of chemical probes, which help further the understanding of how RND efflux pump MexXY-OprM recognises substrates🧩⤵️
– Fanny Berglund et al. – Environmental international
*The study explored antibiotic ARGs in wastewater treatment plant workers, hypothesizing they’d have more diverse resistant bacteria. Analyzing fecal microbiomes and resistomes of 87 wastewater treatment plant workers and 87 controls via shotgun metagenomics, no significant difference in ARG abundance or microbiome composition was found between groups. Interestingly, women had higher disinfectant resistance genes, hinting at cosmetics or cleaning products use as possible contributors. The study concludes that wastewater treatment plant employment doesn’t increase ARG abundance/diversity, and other factors like country of residence, recent antibiotic intake, and gender have more significant impacts.
*The authors of this paper explore alternative treatments for infections caused by drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a growing health threat. They study the immune response in chronically infected patients, discovering a potential therapeutic pathway involving certain neutralizing antibodies. These antibodies are identified as effective against drug-resistant strains, showing promise as an alternative treatment option. Through this work, the authors propose exploiting the immune responses from chronically infected patients as a potential resource for developing new therapeutics against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections.
The September AMR Digest features general issues about AMR and more specific topics about policy, surveillance, AMR removal/transmission and about several specific environments. It encompasses as well from the EMBARK consortium: a study on antibiotic discovery including Luis Pedro Coelho. Enjoy your reading but first “Race against AMR” from BBC StoryWorks.
Our monthly EMBARK Webinar for October is titled “AMR: a link between clinical settings and other environments” with Prof. Adam P. Roberts & Prof. Etienne Ruppe, moderated by Remi Gschwind.
Computational exploration of the global microbiome for antibiotic discovery – Célio Dias Santos-Júnior,Marcelo D. T. Torres,Yiqian Duan,Álvaro Rodríguez del Río,Thomas S.B. Schmidt,Hui Chong,Anthony Fullam,Kuhn Michael,Chengkai Zhu,Amy Houseman,Jelena Somborski,Anna Vines,Xing-Ming Zhao,Peer Bork,Jaime Huerta-Cepas,Cesar de la Fuente-Nunez, Luis Pedro Coelho – bioRxiv preprint
New preprint with @delafuenteupenn : The antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) of the global microbiome!
From 72 diffferent habitats (the best current sampling of the global microbiome) we obtained almost 1 million candidate AMPshttps://t.co/t8hRmjM4XZ
Based on analysis of pre- and post-travel fecal microbiomes using metagenomics and culture dependent methods a significant proportion of travelers acquired ARGs and ARBs.
Beta-lactamases are the main resistance mechanism against beta-lactam antibiotics. They represent a threat for infectious diseases treatment as their resistance spectrum includes all the beta-lactam antibiotics and even beta-lactam associated with beta-lactamases inhibitors. This study reports the test of a new strategy targeting the beta-lactamase itself rather than its active site on beta-lactam antibiotics with inhibitors. It lays on targeting aggregation-prone regions of the enzyme which cause inactivation of the enzyme. TEM and SHV beta-lactamases were investigated regarding their tendency to aggregate. The aggregation of TEM, SHV, and NDM was not bactericidal but it allowed to restore sensitivity to beta-lactam antibiotics.
Can Pept-Ins assist with the global antibiotic resistance crisis?
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are hotspots for ARGs. Studies on ARG in WWTP environments mainly focus on intracellular DNA while a significant proportion of the total DNA is extracellular DNA due to wastewater decontamination. Extracellular DNA has to be taken into account as transformation of naturally competent bacteria can occur with extracellular DNA containing ARGs. The study shows how wastewater is a source of ARGs associated with free-floating exDNA.
So happy to share another paper about Melanophryniscus admirabilis microbiota 🐸🦠 here we observed a high incidence of AMR in Enterobacteriaceae isolated from M. admirabilis, indicating environmental stress caused by anthropic pollution in their habithttps://t.co/nqu2KcCMdC