Virulence Factors of Acinetobacter baumannii Environmental Isolates and Their Inhibition by Natural Zeolite

Hospital wastewaters can become a route for dissemination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to the environment if not properly treated. Some of these bacteria are able to survive conventional disinfection treatments (e.g. chlorination, UV irradiation), which evokes the need for novel disinfection methods. The metal-exchanged zeolites were tested as novel antibacterial agents for wastewater treatment. The natural zeolite clinoptilolite enriched with silver (AgNZ) showed far better antibacterial activity towards hospital pathogenic bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii when compared with copper-exchanged zeolite (CuNZ), with minimal bactericidal concentration of 0.25–2 (AgNZ) compared with 32–64 mg L−1 (CuNZ) in a batch system and respective log 5.6 reduction compared with log 0.5 reduction in a flow system with pure bacterial culture. In the flow system with real effluent wastewater from the treatment plant, the removal of carbapenem-resistant bacteria using AgNZ was 90–100% during the 4 days of the experimental run. These results indicate that the AgNZ efficiently removes pathogenic bacteria from the wastewater, including A. baumannii, and is promising as a disinfectant material in a bead filter system.

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Virulence Factors of Acinetobacter baumannii Environmental Isolates and Their Inhibition by Natural Zeolite

Cited by 3 publications

References 25 publications

Molecular typing, virulence traits and risk factors of pandrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii spread in intensive care unit centers of Baghdad city, Iraq

Molecular typing, virulence traits and risk factors of pandrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii spread in intensive care unit centers of Baghdad city, Iraq

Emerging Human Pathogen Acinetobacter Baumannii Colonises Microplastics Containing Organic Pollutants

Removal of emerging pathogenic bacteria using metal-exchanged natural zeolite bead filter

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