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Antibiotics
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The Effects of Heavy Metals and Other Environmental Contaminants on...
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The Effects of Heavy Metals and Other Environmental Contaminants on Antimicrobial Resistance

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 4390

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Barry R. Palmer

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Health Science, College of Health, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
Interests: heavy metal resistance; antibiotic resistances; genetics of antimicrobial resistance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ali Heydari

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Health Science, College of Health, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
Interests: microbial interactions; molecular microbiology; plant pathology and entomology; biochemistry; antibiotic resistance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Submissions are invited for this Special Issue of Antibiotics dedicated to a topic of growing importance: the emergence of microbes resistant to a range of antimicrobial compounds in environments contaminated with heavy metals (more precisely defined as Trace Elements of Environmental Concern, TEoECs) and other environmental contaminants (e.g., organic contaminants, microplastics, pesticides).

The increasing intensification of human activity in both urban and rural environments, and related effects on undeveloped, once pristine areas, have created situations where a range of compounds contaminate diverse ecosystems. This situation may promote selection for resistance to TEoECs and compounds used as antimicrobials, even in the absence of the latter.

This Special Issue welcomes the submission of manuscripts including original research papers, review articles and opinion papers. Presentation of data on the quantification of cross-resistance and co-resistance for TEoECs and antimicrobials in diverse environments including, for example, hospital settings; effluent from healthcare facilities, farms and other agricultural  facilities, industry, and wastewater treatment plants; and land and water receiving discharges from these plants.

Dr. Barry Palmer
Dr. Ali Heydari
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • heavy metal resistance
  • antimicrobial resistance
  • antibiotic resistance
  • trace elements of environmental concern
  • emerging organic contaminants
  • microplastics
  • antibiotic resistance genes 
  • cross-resistance/co-resistance 
  • cross-resistance/co-resistance mechanisms 
  • selection for resistance 
  • environments selecting multi-resistant microbes 
  • in situ and in vitro resistance monitoring and modelling

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 562 KiB  
Article
Antibiotic Resistance in Metal-Tolerant Microorganisms from Treatment Facilities
by Leonid Perelomov, Olga Sizova, Maria Gertsen, Irina Perelomova, Vyacheslav Arlyapov and Yury Atroshchenko
Antibiotics 2023, 12(12), 1678; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12121678 - 29 Nov 2023
Viewed by 875
Abstract
The study examines the antibiotic resistance of metal-tolerant bacteria isolated from the wastewater treatment plant of a large city to six antibiotics belonging to the β-lactam antibiotics, aminoglycosides and amphenicols. Resistance of bacteria from sewage sludge multitolerant to heavy metals to 18 antibiotics [...] Read more.
The study examines the antibiotic resistance of metal-tolerant bacteria isolated from the wastewater treatment plant of a large city to six antibiotics belonging to the β-lactam antibiotics, aminoglycosides and amphenicols. Resistance of bacteria from sewage sludge multitolerant to heavy metals to 18 antibiotics of the β-lactam antibiotics, tetracyclines, aminoglycosides, diaminopyrimidines, amphenicols and ansamycins was studied also. Out of 10, the metal-tolerant microorganisms isolated from wastewater treatment facilities only the Klebsiella pneumonia strain (tolerant to 3 mM Cu) from the sludge of a secondary settling tank did not show resistance to the studied antibiotics at the concentrations considered. Resistance to the maximum amount of antibiotics was typical for strains Serratia fonticola SS0-1, isolated from fresh sewage sludge and resistant to 5 mmol Cu and 3 mmol Pb, or Stenotrophomonas maltophilia SS0-5, also isolated from fresh sludge and resistant to 3 mmol Zn and Cu. It is possible that bacterial resistance to antibiotics develops not only as a result of the use of antibiotics themselves, but also as a result of environmental pollution with heavy metals, and vice versa. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Heavy Metals and Other Environmental Contaminants on Antimicrobial Resistance)
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16 pages, 2523 KiB  
Article
Co-Selection of Bacterial Metal and Antibiotic Resistance in Soil Laboratory Microcosms
by Ali Heydari, Nick D. Kim, Patrick J. Biggs, Jacqui Horswell, Gerty J. H. P. Gielen, Alma Siggins, Matthew D. Taylor, Collette Bromhead and Barry R. Palmer
Antibiotics 2023, 12(4), 772; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12040772 - 18 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1466
Abstract
Accumulation of heavy metals (HMs) in agricultural soil following the application of superphosphate fertilisers seems to induce resistance of soil bacteria to HMs and appears to co-select for resistance to antibiotics (Ab). This study aimed to investigate the selection of co-resistance of soil [...] Read more.
Accumulation of heavy metals (HMs) in agricultural soil following the application of superphosphate fertilisers seems to induce resistance of soil bacteria to HMs and appears to co-select for resistance to antibiotics (Ab). This study aimed to investigate the selection of co-resistance of soil bacteria to HMs and Ab in uncontaminated soil incubated for 6 weeks at 25 °C in laboratory microcosms spiked with ranges of concentrations of cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn) and mercury (Hg). Co-selection of HM and Ab resistance was assessed using plate culture on media with a range of HM and Ab concentrations, and pollution-induced community tolerance (PICT) assays. Bacterial diversity was profiled via terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) assay and 16S rDNA sequencing of genomic DNA isolated from selected microcosms. Based on sequence data, the microbial communities exposed to HMs were found to differ significantly compared to control microcosms with no added HM across a range of taxonomic levels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Heavy Metals and Other Environmental Contaminants on Antimicrobial Resistance)
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14 pages, 35517 KiB  
Article
Cytotoxicity and Antibacterial Efficacy of AgCu and AgFe NanoAlloys: A Comparative Study
by Fang Zhou, Elie Kostantin, De-Quan Yang and Edward Sacher
Antibiotics 2022, 11(12), 1737; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11121737 - 01 Dec 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1519
Abstract
Although Ag nanoparticles (NPs) have been widely applied in daily life and in biomedical and industrial fields, there is a demand for Ag-based bimetallic nanoalloys (NAs), such as AgCu and AgFe, due to their enhanced antibacterial efficacy and reduced Ag consumption. In this [...] Read more.
Although Ag nanoparticles (NPs) have been widely applied in daily life and in biomedical and industrial fields, there is a demand for Ag-based bimetallic nanoalloys (NAs), such as AgCu and AgFe, due to their enhanced antibacterial efficacy and reduced Ag consumption. In this work, we present a comparison study on the antibacterial efficacy and cytotoxicity rates of Ag NPs and AgCu and AgFe NAs to L929 mouse fibroblast cells using the CCK-8 technique based on the relative cell viability. The concept of the minimum death concentration (MDC) is introduced to estimate the cytotoxicity to the cells. It is found that the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the NPs against E. coli and S. aureus decrease with the addition of both Cu and Fe. There is a strong correlation between the MDC and MIC, implying that the mechanisms of both antibacterial efficacy and cytotoxicity are similar. The enhanced antibacterial efficacy to bacteria and cytotoxicity toward the cell are attributed to Ag+ release. The following order is found for both the MIC and MDC: AgFe < AgCu < Ag NPs. However, there is no cytotoxicity to the L929 cells for AgFe and AgCu NAs at their MIC Ag concentrations against S. aureus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Heavy Metals and Other Environmental Contaminants on Antimicrobial Resistance)
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