Antimicrobial resistance gene persistence in waste water treatment systems, the natural environment and patient samples in the Lothians

洛锡安废水处理系统、自然环境和患者样本中抗菌素耐药性基因的持久性

• 批准号: 2106285
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2106285
• 关键词: Antimicrobial; resistance; gene; persistence; waste

Antimicrobial resistance poses a major threat to health services on a global scale. Whilst bacteria harbouring antimicrobial resistant (AMR) genes are known to have existed in the environment preceding the medical use of antibiotics, their intensive use has resulted in a rapid increase in AMR gene diversity and prevalence. Currently, there is a lack of knowledge surrounding how different environmental factors influence the prevalence and dispersal of AMR genes. It is important to gain greater understanding these factors as it will enable the development of strategies to intercept and prevent sources of AMR spread. The extensive therapeutic use of antibiotics has resulted in an increase in the level of antimicrobial resistant bacteria found in human faeces, making waste water treatment plants (WWTPs) a "hotspot" of resistant bacteria. The release of effluent into the surrounding environment and the use of biosolids as a fertiliser on agricultural land act as a significant point of entry for resistant bacteria and their AMR genes into the environment. The current project aims to improve our understanding of the contributing factors to the prevalence and persistence of AMR genes in WWTPs and in the environment. A list of primers targeting known resistance genes has been compiled, which the study will test and use in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to investigate the abundance of a variety of AMR genes in a range of samples. Alongside the WWTP, soil and water samples will be taken from a diverse set of environments including agricultural land and rural/ urban areas, in order to assess the impact of human activity on AMR prevalence. The study will also utilize lab-scale bioreactors and microcosms, reflecting real-world WWTPs and environments to investigate factors influencing the persistence of a select number of clinically relevant AMR genes over time and their prevalence amongst microbial communities under differing conditions. This may include operating conditions used in WWTPs. Another area the project will explore aims to increase our understanding regarding the role of the environment in the transmission of clinically relevant AMR genes to the human population. This will be addressed by performing PCR on faecal samples collected from healthy human volunteers in Edinburgh. The abundance of AMR genes will be compared to those observed in the environmental samples, in order to establish whether there is any correlation. This will help build a clearer picture detailing the extent to which AMR genes in the environment impact the human population.

抗生素耐药性在全球范围内对卫生服务构成重大威胁。虽然已知携带抗菌素耐药（AMR）基因的细菌存在于抗生素医疗使用之前的环境中，但它们的密集使用导致AMR基因多样性和流行率迅速增加。目前，缺乏关于不同环境因素如何影响AMR基因的流行和传播的知识。更好地了解这些因素非常重要，因为这将有助于制定拦截和防止耐药性传播来源的策略。抗生素的广泛治疗用途导致人类粪便中发现的抗微生物耐药细菌水平增加，使废水处理厂（WWTP）成为耐药细菌的“热点”。排放到周围环境中的污水和在农业用地上使用生物固体作为肥料是耐药细菌及其AMR基因进入环境的重要入口。目前的项目旨在提高我们对AMR基因在污水处理厂和环境中的流行和持久性的影响因素的理解。已经编制了一份针对已知耐药基因的引物清单，该研究将在聚合酶链反应（PCR）中进行测试和使用，以调查一系列样本中各种AMR基因的丰度。除了污水处理厂，还将从不同的环境中采集土壤和水样本，包括农业用地和农村/城市地区，以评估人类活动对AMR流行率的影响。该研究还将利用实验室规模的生物反应器和微观世界，反映真实世界的污水处理厂和环境，以调查影响选定数量的临床相关AMR基因随时间的持续性及其在不同条件下微生物群落中的流行率的因素。这可能包括污水处理厂中使用的操作条件。该项目将探索的另一个领域旨在增加我们对环境在临床相关AMR基因向人群传播中的作用的理解。这将通过对从爱丁堡健康人类志愿者中采集的粪便样本进行PCR来解决。AMR基因的丰度将与环境样本中观察到的丰度进行比较，以确定是否存在任何相关性。这将有助于更清晰地了解环境中AMR基因对人类的影响程度。