Selection for antimicrobial resistance by plant protection products - analysis of established experimental field sites

BBSRC：Laura May Murray：BB/T508330/1抗生素用于治疗细菌引起的感染。然而，细菌可能会对抗生素产生抗药性，这意味着它们仍然能够在抗生素存在的情况下生长。出于这个原因，由抗药性细菌引起的感染正变得更加难以治疗。例如，由于住院时间增加，由抗生素耐药细菌引起的感染也代价极其高昂。抗生素的过度使用和误用正在推动抗药性细菌的进化，据预测，到2050年，每三秒钟就会有一人死于抗药性感染。然而，也有证据表明，其他抗微生物化合物可以导致抗生素耐药性的演变。抗菌剂是杀死细菌的化学物质或化合物，但不能用于治疗人类或动物的感染，因为它们毒性太大。此外，有新的研究表明，其他不被用作抗菌剂的化学品(例如人类药物)也可能导致抗生素耐药性的发展。抗生素、抗菌剂和其他化学物质的混合物如何相互作用并推动抗生素耐药性的演变尚不清楚。抗菌素不仅用于治疗和预防人类和动物的感染；它们还作为植物保护产品(PPP)应用于农业土壤。购买力平价在全球范围内被用来增加作物产量。目前有许多类型的PPP正在使用，例如除草剂(用于防止有害植物的生长)或杀虫剂(用于杀死害虫)。到目前为止，还没有研究调查非抗生素PPP是否可以推动抗生素耐药性的演变。这项研究将补充BBSRC/AstraZeneca iCASE博士生项目中正在进行的题为“调查非抗生素药物和植物保护产品的抗菌素耐药性选择和共同选择”的工作。将使用实验室实验和各种基于培养的和分子微生物学方法来确定将土壤细菌群落暴露于非抗生素PPP是否会导致抗生素耐药性水平的增加。这个位置提供了一个独特的机会，可以研究在建立良好的试验田中暴露于PPP的情况，这些试验田每年都会进行PPP处理。这将有助于对实验室实验的解释，并为博士研究提供一个环境现实的方面。这项新研究的发现可能有助于影响PPP的监管、食品安全政策和环境来源的抗生素耐药细菌暴露的人类健康风险评估。

BBSRC : Laura May Murray : BB/T508330/1Antibiotics are used to treat infections caused by bacteria. However, bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, meaning they are still able to grow in the presence of antibiotics. For this reason, infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria are becoming more difficult to treat. Infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria are also extremely costly, for example, due to increased length of stay in hospital. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics is driving the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria, and it has been predicted that by 2050, someone will die every three seconds from an antibiotic resistant infection. However, there is also evidence that other antimicrobial compounds can result in the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Antimicrobials are chemicals or compounds that kill bacteria, but cannot be used for treatment of infections in humans or animals because they are too toxic. Furthermore, there is new research indicating that other chemicals, which are not used as antimicrobials (for example, human medicines) may also lead to the development of antibiotic resistance. How mixtures of antibiotics, antimicrobials and other chemicals may interact and drive the evolution of antibiotic resistance is poorly understood.Antibiotics are not just used to treat and prevent infections in humans and animals; they are also applied to agricultural soils as plant protection products (PPPs). PPPs are used globally to increase crop yields. There are many types of PPPs currently in use, such as herbicides (used to prevent growth of unwanted plants) or insecticides (used to kill pest insects). No research to date has investigated if non-antibiotic PPPs can drive evolution of antibiotic resistance. This research placement will complement work being undertaken in the BBSRC/AstraZeneca iCASE PhD studentship entitled "Investigating selection and co-selection for antimicrobial resistance by non-antibiotic drugs and plant protection products". Laboratory experiments and a variety of culture based and molecular microbiology methods will be used to determine if exposing soil bacterial communities to non-antibiotic PPPs results in increased levels of antibiotic resistance. This placement provides a unique opportunity to study exposure to PPPs in well-established experiment field plots, which are treated with PPPs annually. This will aid interpretation of laboratory experiments and provide an environmentally realistic aspect to the PhD research.The findings from this novel research may be useful for influencing regulation of PPPs, food safety policy and human health risk assessment of exposure to antibiotic resistant bacteria from environmental sources.