AMR DIGEST – May 2023
Prepared by Víctor Hugo Jarquín Díaz (http://www.twitter.com/vhjarquind) on behalf of the EMBARK consortium (https://twitter.com/EMBARK_JPIAMR)
The weather is getting warm and the AMR digest of May features a lot of hot-topics on gene transfer and plasmid research, AMR in aquatic environments, food, wildlife, and more!
Have a look at the podcast section and don’t miss the upcoming EMBARK seminar!
General
Deep learning-guided discovery of an antibiotic targeting Acinetobacter baumannii – Gary Liu et al. – Nature Chemical Biology
* In times of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence (AI) as part of our daily-life, Gary Lui and colleagues present a deep-learning approach to discover new antibacterial molecules. They screened ~7,500 molecules that inhibited the growth of A. baumannii in vitro and then trained a neural network to make predictions in silico for new molecules which could have antimicrobial activity against A. baumannii. Their work led to the discovery of a new narrow-spectrum antibacterial compound called abaucin against A. baumannii. This work highlights the promising use of AI algorithms for a rapid discovery of new and more specific antimicrobial compounds.
Wastewater monitoring can anchor global disease surveillance systems – Aparna Keshaviah et al. – The Lancet Global Health
Endemicity and diversification of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in an intensive care unit – Emma Doughty et al. – The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific
Mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. – María Fernández-Billón et al. – Biofilm
Translating eco-evolutionary biology into therapy to tackle antibiotic resistance – Fernando Sanz-García et al. – Nature Reviews Microbiology
* This review by Fernando Sanz-García and cols., discusses the trade-offs in antibiotic resistance evolution to design eco-evolutionary based treatment approaches. Understanding the evolution of antimicrobial resistance is key to tackling this worldwide relevant problem.
Policy
ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE: Federal Agencies Have Taken Steps to Combat the Threat, But Additional Actions Needed – United States Government Accountability Office (US-GAO) Report
Report of the Global Leaders Group AMR Reception at WHA 76: The Road to the UNGA High-level Meeting on AMR in 2024 – 76th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland on May 22, 2023
Evolution of Resistance
Functionally distinct mutations within AcrB underpin antibiotic resistance in different lifestyles – Eleftheria Trampari et al. – npj Antimicrobials and Resistance
Role of bacterial efflux pumps in antibiotic resistance, virulence, and strategies to discover novel efflux pump inhibitor – Amit Gaurav et al. – Microbiology
Removal of Resistance
Removal of AMR plasmids using a mobile, broad host-range CRISPR-Cas9 delivery tool – David Walker-Sünderhauf, Uli Klümper, Elizabeth Pursey, Edze Westra, William H. Gaze, Stineke van Houte – Microbiology
* The researchers harnessed the CRISPR-Cas gene editing system, which can target specific sequences of DNA, and cut through them when they are encountered. The researchers engineered a self-transmissible plasmid which can specifically target the resistance gene for Gentamicin – a commonly used antibiotic. In laboratory experiments, they found that the plasmid protected its host cell from developing resistance. Furthermore, researchers found that the plasmid effectively targeted antimicrobial resistant genes in hosts to which it transferred at high frequencies, reversing their resistance and resensitising them to antibiotic treatment
Climate change
Enhanced freeze-thaw cycles facilitate the antibiotic resistance proliferation and dissemination risk under global climate change – Zhengang Lou et al. – Process Safety and Environmental Protection
Gene Transfer/Plasmids
Catch me if you can: capturing microbial community transformation by extracellular DNA using Hi-C sequencing – David Calderon-Franco et al. – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
Plasmid-mediated antibiotic resistance gene transfer under environmental stresses: Insights from laboratory-based studies – Li-Guan Li & Tong Zhang – Science of the Total Environment
Low concentration quaternary ammonium compounds promoted antibiotic resistance gene transfer via plasmid conjugation – Congcong Liu et al. – Science of the Total Environment
A novel bidirectional regulation mechanism of mancozeb on the dissemination of antibiotic resistance – Jiajin Song et al. – Journal of Hazardous Materials
DNA modifications impact natural transformation of Acinetobacter baumannii – Vesel et al. – Nucleic acid research
A scalable framework for high-throughput identification of functional origins of replication in non-model bacteria – Charlie Gilbert et al. – bioRxiv preprint
Complete sequence of a new conjugative multidrug-resistance encoding IncFII/IncFIA/IncFIB plasmid carrying NDM-6 metallo-β-lactamase from pathogenic Escherichia coli sequence type 167 isolated from sewage in Norway – Didrik H. Grevskott et al. – Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance
Transmission
Discrepancy in the transmissibility of multidrug-resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis in urban and rural areas in China – Li Meng et al. – Emerging Microbes and Infection
Aquatic environments/Wastewater
Microbiome and Resistome Profiles along a Sewage-Effluent-Reservoir Trajectory Underline the Role of Natural Attenuation in Wastewater Stabilization Reservoirs – I. Leão, L. Khalifa, N. Gallois, I. Vaz-Moreira, Uli Klümper, D. Youdkes, S. Palmony, L. Dagai, Thomas U. Berendonk, C. Merlin, C.M. Manaia, E. Cytryn – Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Anthropogenic pollution drives the bacterial resistome in a complex freshwater ecosystem – Andrea di Cesare et al. – Chemosphere
* This research highlights the role of anthropogenic pressure in promoting the spread of antimicrobial resistance genes and pathogenic bacteria and the relationship between ARGs and metal resistance genes (MRGs). The authors studied the fate of ARGs in a continuum system of two lakes connected by a river in the Northern of Italy. The authors suggest that under high levels of pollutant in aquatic environments, the ARGs and MRGs could be under co-selection.
An extensive assessment of seasonal rainfall on intracellular and extracellular antibiotic resistance genes in Urban River systems – Wenchao Yu et al. – Journal of Hazardous Materials
Transfer route and driving forces of antibiotic resistance genes from reclaimed water to groundwater – Xiangyu Guan et al. – Environmental Pollution
Synergistic removal of pharmaceuticals and antibiotic resistance from ultrafiltered WWTP effluent: Free-floating ARGs exceptionally susceptible to degradation – Stanislav Gajdoš et al., – Journal of Environmental Management
Microbial niches and dynamics of antibiotic resistance genes in a bio-enhanced granular-activated carbon biofilm treating greywater – Ting Wei et al. – Chemosphere
Land-derived wastewater facilitates antibiotic resistance contamination in marine sediment of semi-closed bay: A case study in Jiaozhou Bay, China. – Quian Wang et al. – Journal of Environmental Management
Carbapenemase-producing Gram-negative bacteria in hospital wastewater, wastewater treatment plants and surface waters in a metropolitan area in Germany, 2020 – Markus Hoffman et al. – Science of the total environment
Metagenomic analysis to determine the characteristics of antibiotic resistance genes in typical antibiotic-contaminated sediments – Han Yang et al. – Journal of Environmental Sciences
Soil
Reforestation substantially changed the soil antibiotic resistome and its relationships with metal resistance genes, mobile genetic elements, and pathogens – Song Zhang et al. – Journal of Environmental Management
Food
A snapshot survey of antimicrobial resistance in food-animals in low and middle-income countries – Odion O. Ikhimiukor & Iruka N. Okeke – One Health
* Large screening of bacterial isolates in food animals from low and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Africa, Middle East and Central America. Iruka Okeke and Odion Ikhimiukor analyzed over 150 studies and observed that despite wide variation between countries, food animals are important reservoirs of AMR in LMICs and highlight the necessity of surveillance and monitoring.
Molecular characterization of extended-spectrum β-lactamases-producing Enterobacteriaceae species in ground beef and chicken meat – Gökhan İnat et al. – International Journal of Food Microbiology
Contribution of different class 2 integron elements to fitness costs in multi-drug resistant Escherichia coli and evaluation of their adaptability in “farm-to-table” environments – Han Jiang et al. – Food Microbiology
Farmed Animals / Wildlife
Effects of different laying periods on airborne bacterial diversity and antibiotic resistance genes in layer hen houses – Huan Cui et al. – The International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health
Limited impacts of high doses of dietary copper on the gut bacterial metal resistome explain negligible co-selection of antibiotic resistance – Asal Forouzandeh et al. – Science of the Total Environment
Jacob A. Rasmussen & Pysilia Y. S. Chua- Microbiological Research
Acinetobacter Metabolism in Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance – Xiaomei Ren et al. – Infection and Immunity
Phages
Lysogenic bacteriophages encoding arsenic resistance determinants promote bacterial community adaptation to arsenic toxicity – Xiang Tang et al. – The ISME Journal
Bioinformatics
ResFinderFG v2.0: a database of antibiotic resistance genes obtained by functional metagenomics – Rémi Gschwind, Svetlana Ugarcina Perovic, Maja Weiss, Marie Petitjean, Julie Lao, Luis Pedro Coelho, Etienne Ruppé – Nucleic Acids Research
* The second version of ResFinderFG is published and available! Check it at the portal of the Center of Genomic Epidemiology (https://cge.food.dtu.dk/services/ResFinderFG). This new version contains over 3900 ARGs identified by functional metagenomics.
Tools
LongDat: an R package for covariate-sensitive longitudinal analysis of high-dimensional data – Chia-Yu Chen, Ulrike Lӧber, Sofia K Forslund – Bioinformatics Advances
* LongDat R package is a computationally efficient and low-memory-cost tool for longitudinal data with multiple covariates and facilitates robust biomarker searches in high-dimensional datasets.
Webinars
Our monthly EMBARK Webinar on Strategies for AMR surveillance with an One Health approach with Prof. Frank van Leth & Ass. Prof. Johan Bengtsson-Palme. Moderated by Anna Abramova. June 14, 14:00 CEST. Register here
Courses/Workshops
FAO – knowledge dissemination dialogues on AMR – Jun 8, 2023 12:30 PM – Online
Podcast/Sci-comm
Know Something About Antimicrobial Resistance by the Students against superbugs – Africa
Microbe Talk: A Deep Dive Into Wastewater Monitoring – Microbiology Society – Posted on May 24, 2023 by Clare Baker