Spread of antibiotic resistance genes and microbiota in airborne particulate matter, dust, and human airways in the urban hospital

Zhou, Zhen-Chao; Liu, Yang; Lin, Ze-Jun; Shuai, Xin-Yi; Zhu, Lin; Xu, Lan; Meng, Ling-Xuan; Sun, Yujie; Chen, Hong

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2021.106501

Cited by 50 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 71 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Following that procedure, all metagenome data were refined to remove redundant assemblages and then were annotated for taxonomic classifications by using the Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB; v1.4.0) [ 39 ]. To analyze the potential sources of the bacteria loaded on the air PM 2.5 samples, 16S rRNA sequences were extracted from metagenomic reads by using SortMeRNA (version 2.1b) [ 26 ]. The silva-bac-16s-id90.fasta and Greengenes 13.8 99_otus.fasta databases were used with –fastx –paired_in -blast 1 -num_alignments 1 parameter settings.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…were observed in the bioaerosols of inpatient wards and other public areas of hospitals. These airborne bacteria associated with inhalable particles (e.g., PM 2.5 and PM 10 ) that are (potentially) virulent to humans can be transmitted from the air to the human respiratory system via inhalation [ 23 – 26 ]. Moreover, mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in the air can facilitate the dissemination of ARGs to airborne bacteria via horizontal gene transfer (HGT) [ 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Inhalable antibiotic resistomes emitted from hospitals: metagenomic insights into bacterial hosts, clinical relevance, and environmental risks

Liu

Xie

et al. 2022

Microbiome

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Threats of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to human health are on the rise worldwide. Airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5), especially those emitted from hospitals, could serve as a substantial yet lesser-known environmental medium of inhalable antibiotic resistomes. A genome-centric understanding of the hosting bacterial taxa, mobility potential, and consequent risks of the resistomes is needed to reveal the health relevance of PM2.5-associated AMR from clinical settings. Results Compared to urban ambient air PM2.5, the hospital samples harbored nearly twice the abundance of antibiotic resistantance genes (ARGs, ~ 0.2 log10(ARGs/16S rRNA gene)) in the summer and winter sampled. The profiled resistome was closely correlated with the human-source-influenced (~ 30% of the contribution) bacterial community (Procrustes test, P < 0.001), reflecting the potential antibiotic-resistant bacteria (PARB), such as the human commensals Staphylococcus spp. and Corynebacterium spp. Despite the reduced abundance and diversity of the assembled metagenomes from summer to winter, the high horizontal transfer potential of ARGs, such as the clinically relevant blaOXA and bacA, in the human virulent PARB remained unaffected in the hospital air PM samples. The occurring patterns of β-lactam resistance genes and their hosting genomes in the studied hospital-emitting PM2.5 were closely related to the in-ward β-lactam-resistant infections (SEM, std = 0.62, P < 0.01). Featured with more abundant potentially virulent PARB (2.89 genome copies/m3-air), the hospital samples had significantly higher resistome risk index scores than the urban ambient air samples, indicating that daily human exposure to virulent PARB via the inhalation of PM2.5 was ten times greater than from the ingestion of drinking water. Conclusions The significance of AMR in the studied hospital-emitting PM2.5 was highlighted by the greater abundance of ARGs, the prevalence of potentially virulent PARB, and the close association with hospital in-ward β-lactam infections. A larger-scale multi-source comparison of genome-resolved antibiotic resistomes is needed to provide a more holistic understanding to evaluate the importance of airborne AMR from the “One-Health” perspective.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhalable antibiotic resistomes emitted from hospitals: metagenomic insights into bacterial hosts, clinical relevance, and environmental risks

Liu

Xie

et al. 2022

Microbiome

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The inhalation of airborne ARGs is generally affected by the PM concentration, ARG HGT, and environmental deposition (Jin et al 2021 ; Xie et al 2021 ). Previous studies have suggested that airborne PM is a unique pathway for the environmental dissemination of ARGs, and the results show that multiresistant plasmids of pTAir-3 (containing 26 HGT and 10 ARGs), which promotes HGT, can potentially spread antibiotic resistance via conjugative transfer-induced inhalable PM (Liang et al 2013, Zhou et al 2021 ). In addition, PM can selectively increase the pathogen levels, and such pathogens are more likely to rapidly spread antibiotic resistance.…”

Section: Antibiotic Resistance In Bioaerosolsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The daily intake (DI) of ARGs, such as those that induce resistance to beta-lactam (bla CTX , bla TEM-1 ), tetracycline (tetA, tetB, tetM), sulfonamide (sul1, sul2, sul3), and MLS (ermB, ermC), through PM is approximately 10 2 –10 8 copies/day, and a similar DI (10 4 –10 7 copies/day) of ARGs occurs through drinking water, indicating a high risk of ARG inhalation through PM in bioaerosols (Xie et al 2018 ; Li et al 2020a ; Liang et al 2020 ). ARGs in inhaled bacteria can be lost or decomposed due to growth or reduction, but their effects remain harmful if transferred to native human bacteria because HGT can cause resistance in other bacterial groups and pathogens (Liang et al 2020 ; Zhou et al 2021 ; Gwenzi et al 2022 ).…”

Section: Antibiotic Resistance In Bioaerosolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, antibiotic resistance can be caused by the short-term release of bioaerosols from coughing, sneezing, conversation, inhalation, and exhalation (Ian and Gerba 2015; McEacharan et al 2015; Gao et al 2018a ; Gaviria-Figueroa et al 2019 ; Han and Yoo 2020 ; Gwenzi et al 2022 ; Xie et al 2021 ). ARGs in bioaerosols may subsequently propagate or become further altered through MGEs and interaction with airborne microbes (Xie et al 2021 ; Zhou et al 2021 ). However, airborne microbial communities, unlike those in soil and aquatic environmental systems, have not been well characterized due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient biomass.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A review of the emergence of antibiotic resistance in bioaerosols and its monitoring methods

Lee

Yoo

2022

Rev Environ Sci Biotechnol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite significant public health concerns regarding infectious diseases in air environments, potentially harmful microbiological indicators, such as antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in bioaerosols, have not received significant attention. Traditionally, bioaerosol studies have focused on the characterization of microbial communities; however, a more serious problem has recently arisen due to the presence of ARGs in bioaerosols, leading to an increased prevalence of horizontal gene transfer (HGT). This constitutes a process by which bacteria transfer genes to other environmental media and consequently cause infectious disease. Antibiotic resistance in water and soil environments has been extensively investigated in the past few years by applying advanced molecular and biotechnological methods. However, ARGs in bioaerosols have not received much attention. In addition, ARG and HGT profiling in air environments is greatly limited in field studies due to the absence of suitable methodological approaches. Therefore, this study comprehensively describes recent findings from published studies and some of the appropriate molecular and biotechnological methods for monitoring antibiotic resistance in bioaerosols. In addition, this review discusses the main knowledge gaps regarding current methodological issues and future research directions.

show abstract

Antibiotic resistance of airborne bacterial populations in a hospital environment

Tamsi

Latif

Othman

et al. 2022

Environ Monit Assess

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Spread of antibiotic resistance genes and microbiota in airborne particulate matter, dust, and human airways in the urban hospital

Cited by 50 publications

References 71 publications

Inhalable antibiotic resistomes emitted from hospitals: metagenomic insights into bacterial hosts, clinical relevance, and environmental risks

Inhalable antibiotic resistomes emitted from hospitals: metagenomic insights into bacterial hosts, clinical relevance, and environmental risks

A review of the emergence of antibiotic resistance in bioaerosols and its monitoring methods

Antibiotic resistance of airborne bacterial populations in a hospital environment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About