# | Rank | Similarity | Title + Abs. | Year | PMID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 6507 | 0 | 0.9952 | What Are the Drivers Triggering Antimicrobial Resistance Emergence and Spread? Outlook from a One Health Perspective. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has emerged as a critical global public health threat, exacerbating healthcare burdens and imposing substantial economic costs. Currently, AMR contributes to nearly five million deaths annually worldwide, surpassing mortality rates of any single infectious disease. The economic burden associated with AMR-related disease management is estimated at approximately $730 billion per year. This review synthesizes current research on the mechanisms and multifaceted drivers of AMR development and dissemination through the lens of the One Health framework, which integrates human, animal, and environmental health perspectives. Intrinsic factors, including antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements (MGEs), enable bacteria to evolve adaptive resistance mechanisms such as enzymatic inactivation, efflux pumps, and biofilm formation. Extrinsic drivers span environmental stressors (e.g., antimicrobials, heavy metals, disinfectants), socioeconomic practices, healthcare policies, and climate change, collectively accelerating AMR proliferation. Horizontal gene transfer and ecological pressures further facilitate the spread of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria across ecosystems. The cascading impacts of AMR threaten human health and agricultural productivity, elevate foodborne infection risks, and impose substantial economic burdens, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. To address this complex issue, the review advocates for interdisciplinary collaboration, robust policy implementation (e.g., antimicrobial stewardship), and innovative technologies (e.g., genomic surveillance, predictive modeling) under the One Health paradigm. Such integrated strategies are essential to mitigate AMR transmission, safeguard global health, and ensure sustainable development. | 2025 | 40558133 |
| 6508 | 1 | 0.9951 | Synergizing Ecotoxicology and Microbiome Data Is Key for Developing Global Indicators of Environmental Antimicrobial Resistance. The One Health concept recognises the interconnectedness of humans, plants, animals and the environment. Recent research strongly supports the idea that the environment serves as a significant reservoir for antimicrobial resistance (AMR). However, the complexity of natural environments makes efforts at AMR public health risk assessment difficult. We lack sufficient data on key ecological parameters that influence AMR, as well as the primary proxies necessary for evaluating risks to human health. Developing environmental AMR 'early warning systems' requires models with well-defined parameters. This is necessary to support the implementation of clear and targeted interventions. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the current tools used globally for environmental AMR human health risk assessment and the underlying knowledge gaps. We highlight the urgent need for standardised, cost-effective risk assessment frameworks that are adaptable across different environments and regions to enhance comparability and reliability. These frameworks must also account for previously understudied AMR sources, such as horticulture, and emerging threats like climate change. In addition, integrating traditional ecotoxicology with modern 'omics' approaches will be essential for developing more comprehensive risk models and informing targeted AMR mitigation strategies. | 2024 | 39611949 |
| 6446 | 2 | 0.9949 | Ecological consequences of antimicrobial residues and bioactive chemicals on antimicrobial resistance in agroecosystems. BACKGROUND: The widespread use of antimicrobials in agriculture, coupled with bioactive chemicals like pesticides and growth-promoting agents, has accelerated the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Agroecosystems provides a platform in the evolution and dissemination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), which pose significant threats to both environmental and public health. AIM OF REVIEW: This review explores the ecological consequences of antimicrobial residues and bioactive chemicals in agroecosystems, with a focus on their role in shaping AMR. It delves into the mechanisms by which these substances enter agricultural environments, their interactions with soil microbiomes, and the subsequent impacts on microbial community structure. KEY SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS OF REVIEW: Evidence indicates that the accumulation of antimicrobials promotes resistance gene transfer among microorganisms, potentially compromising ecosystem health and agricultural productivity. By synthesizing current research, we identify critical gaps in knowledge and propose strategies for mitigating the ecological risks associated with antimicrobial residues. Moreover, this review highlights the urgent need for integrated management approaches to preserve ecosystem health and combat the spread of AMR in agricultural settings. | 2025 | 39414225 |
| 6665 | 3 | 0.9947 | A One-Health Perspective of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): Human, Animals and Environmental Health. Antibiotics are essential for treating bacterial and fungal infections in plants, animals, and humans. Their widespread use in agriculture and the food industry has significantly enhanced animal health and productivity. However, extensive and often inappropriate antibiotic use has driven the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a global health crisis marked by the reduced efficacy of antimicrobial treatments. Recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the top ten global public health threats, AMR arises when certain bacteria harbor antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) that confer resistance that can be horizontally transferred to other bacteria, accelerating resistance spread in the environment. AMR poses a significant global health challenge, affecting humans, animals, and the environment alike. A One-Health perspective highlights the interconnected nature of these domains, emphasizing that resistant microorganisms spread across healthcare, agriculture, and the environment. Recent scientific advances such as metagenomic sequencing for resistance surveillance, innovative wastewater treatment technologies (e.g., ozonation, UV, membrane filtration), and the development of vaccines and probiotics as alternatives to antibiotics in livestock are helping to mitigate resistance. At the policy level, global initiatives including the WHO Global Action Plan on AMR, coordinated efforts by (Food and Agriculture Organization) FAO and World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and recommendations from the O'Neill Report underscore the urgent need for international collaboration and sustainable interventions. By integrating these scientific and policy responses within the One-Health framework, stakeholders can improve antibiotic stewardship, reduce environmental contamination, and safeguard effective treatments for the future. | 2025 | 41157271 |
| 8630 | 4 | 0.9947 | Environmental fate and behaviour of antibiotic resistance genes and small interference RNAs released from genetically modified crops. Rising global populations have amplified food scarcity across the world and ushered in the development of genetically modified (GM) crops to overcome these challenges. Cultivation of major crops such as corn and soy has favoured GM crops over conventional varieties to meet crop production and resilience needs. Modern GM crops containing small interference RNA molecules and antibiotic resistance genes have become increasingly common in the United States. However, the use of these crops remains controversial due to the uncertainty regarding the unintended release of its genetic material into the environment and possible downstream effects on human and environmental health. DNA or RNA transgenes may be exuded from crop tissues during cultivation or released during plant decomposition and adsorbed by soil. This can contribute to the persistence and bioavailability in soil or water environment and possible uptake by soil microbial communities and further passing of this information to neighbouring bacteria, disrupting microbial ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling and soil fertility. In this review, transgene mechanisms of action, uses in crops, and knowledge regarding their environmental fate and impact to microbes are evaluated. This aims to encapsulate the current knowledge and promote further research regarding unintended effects transgenes may cause. | 2022 | 35892194 |
| 6646 | 5 | 0.9947 | Food animals and antimicrobials: impacts on human health. Antimicrobials are valuable therapeutics whose efficacy is seriously compromised by the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. The provision of antibiotics to food animals encompasses a wide variety of nontherapeutic purposes that include growth promotion. The concern over resistance emergence and spread to people by nontherapeutic use of antimicrobials has led to conflicted practices and opinions. Considerable evidence supported the removal of nontherapeutic antimicrobials (NTAs) in Europe, based on the "precautionary principle." Still, concrete scientific evidence of the favorable versus unfavorable consequences of NTAs is not clear to all stakeholders. Substantial data show elevated antibiotic resistance in bacteria associated with animals fed NTAs and their food products. This resistance spreads to other animals and humans-directly by contact and indirectly via the food chain, water, air, and manured and sludge-fertilized soils. Modern genetic techniques are making advances in deciphering the ecological impact of NTAs, but modeling efforts are thwarted by deficits in key knowledge of microbial and antibiotic loads at each stage of the transmission chain. Still, the substantial and expanding volume of evidence reporting animal-to-human spread of resistant bacteria, including that arising from use of NTAs, supports eliminating NTA use in order to reduce the growing environmental load of resistance genes. | 2011 | 21976606 |
| 6530 | 6 | 0.9947 | Microplastic-associated pathogens and antimicrobial resistance in environment. The ubiquitous use of microplastics and their release into the environment especially the water bodies by anthropogenic/industrial activities are the major resources for microplastic contamination. The widespread and often injudicious use of antimicrobial drugs or antibiotics in various sectors including human health and hygiene, agriculture, animal husbandry and food industries are leading to the release of antibiotics into the wastewater/sewage and other water bodies, particularly in urban setups and thus leads to the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the microbes. Microplastics are emerging as the hubs as well as effective carriers of these microbial pathogens beside their AMR-genes (ARGs) in marine, freshwater, sewage/wastewater, and urban river ecosystems. These drug resistant bacteria interact with microplastics forming synthetic plastispheres, the ideal niche for biofilm formations which in turn facilitates the transfer of ARGs via horizontal gene transfer and further escalates the occurrence and levels of AMR. Microplastic-associated AMR is an emerging threat for human health and healthcare besides being a challenge for the research community for effective management/address of this menace. In this review, we encompass the increasing prevalence of microplastics in environment, emphasizing mainly on water environments, how they act as centers and vectors of microbial pathogens with their associated bacterial assemblage compositions and ultimately lead to AMR. It further discusses the mechanistic insights on how microplastics act as hosts of biofilms (creating the plastisphere). We have also presented the modern toolbox used for microplastic-biofilm analyses. A review on potential strategies for addressing microplastic-associated AMR is given with recent success stories, challenges and future prospects. | 2022 | 34813845 |
| 6398 | 7 | 0.9947 | The interplay between antimicrobial resistance, heavy metal pollution, and the role of microplastics. Environmental pollution with heavy metals (HMs) and microplastics (MPs) could enhance the global health challenge antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Herein, we explore the complicated mechanics of how HMs, MPs, and AMR are interlinked within microbial ecosystems, as well as the co-selection and cross-resistance mechanisms. Unlike antibiotics, HMs have influenced microbial evolution for billions of years, promoting resistance mechanisms that predate antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). At the same time, this conundrum is further complicated by the pervasive spread of MPs in the aquatic and terrestrial environments, acting as substrates for bacterial pathogenic biofilms and accelerates the horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of ARGs and heavy metal resistance genes (MRGs). This review highlights that HMs such as lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), and nickel (Ni) have persistently selected for resistance traits through efflux systems and genetic co-regulation. Together, these interactions are amplified by MPs that create genetic exchange hotspots due to biofilm formation. These dynamics are modulated by organic matter, which serves both as a nutrient source and a mediator of HM bioavailability, directly influencing ARG abundance. Soil and water ecosystems, including riverine systems and landfill leachate, are reservoirs for ARGs and ARG-MRG combinations, with notable contributions originating from anthropogenic activities. This review also emphasizes the urgent need for integrated environmental and public health strategies to mitigate pollutant-driven AMR. This work seeks to approach HMs and MPs as synergistic drivers of AMR such that both HMs and MPs are upstream (causes) levers, a foundation from which future research on sustainable environmental management practices and health policy (One Health Approach), aimed at curbing the spread of resistance determinants can proceed. | 2025 | 40092036 |
| 6425 | 8 | 0.9946 | Freshwater plastisphere: a review on biodiversity, risks, and biodegradation potential with implications for the aquatic ecosystem health. The plastisphere, a unique microbial biofilm community colonizing plastic debris and microplastics (MPs) in aquatic environments, has attracted increasing attention owing to its ecological and public health implications. This review consolidates current state of knowledge on freshwater plastisphere, focussing on its biodiversity, community assembly, and interactions with environmental factors. Current biomolecular approaches revealed a variety of prokaryotic and eukaryotic taxa associated with plastic surfaces. Despite their ecological importance, the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria and mobile genetic elements (i.e., antibiotic resistance genes) raises concerns for ecosystem and human health. However, the extent of these risks and their implications remain unclear. Advanced sequencing technologies are promising for elucidating the functions of plastisphere, particularly in plastic biodegradation processes. Overall, this review emphasizes the need for comprehensive studies to understand plastisphere dynamics in freshwater and to support effective management strategies to mitigate the impact of plastic pollution on freshwater resources. | 2024 | 38699475 |
| 6534 | 9 | 0.9946 | Antibiotic resistance dissemination in soil ecosystems: deep understanding for effective management and global health protection. Antibiotic resistance poses a significant threat to global health, extending beyond clinical settings into environmental reservoirs such as soil, where resistant bacteria persist and evolve. Current efforts focus on understanding the origins and implications of antibiotic resistance in soil ecosystems. It defines antibiotic resistance within an environmental context and highlights soil as a critical reservoir for antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs). Key sources of antibiotics in soil are identified, including agricultural practices, medical waste, and municipal and industrial effluents. The classification and mechanisms of ARGs are outlined, along with their transmission pathways, particularly within soil biofilms, which play a crucial role in gene transfer and microbial protection. The interplay between soil microbial communities and antibiotic resistance is discussed, emphasizing its potential risks to human health, including infectious diseases and food safety concerns. Strategies for mitigating antibiotic resistance in soil are presented, focusing on optimizing antibiotic usage, developing alternatives, and enhancing degradation mechanisms. This review underscores the need for interdisciplinary research to deepen understanding of soil microbial diversity and its connection to antibiotic resistance, emphasizing integrated efforts to safeguard soil and human health. | 2025 | 41166035 |
| 6533 | 10 | 0.9946 | The Role of the Environment (Water, Air, Soil) in the Emergence and Dissemination of Antimicrobial Resistance: A One Health Perspective. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has emerged as a planetary health emergency, driven not only by the clinical misuse of antibiotics but also by diverse environmental dissemination pathways. This review critically examines the role of environmental compartments-water, soil, and air-as dynamic reservoirs and transmission routes for antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and resistance genes (ARGs). Recent metagenomic, epidemiological, and mechanistic evidence demonstrates that anthropogenic pressures-including pharmaceutical effluents, agricultural runoff, untreated sewage, and airborne emissions-amplify resistance evolution and interspecies gene transfer via horizontal gene transfer mechanisms, biofilms, and mobile genetic elements. Importantly, it is not only highly polluted rivers such as the Ganges that contribute to the spread of AMR; even low concentrations of antibiotics and their metabolites, formed during or after treatment, can significantly promote the selection and dissemination of resistance. Environmental hotspots such as European agricultural soils and airborne particulate zones near wastewater treatment plants further illustrate the complexity and global scope of pollution-driven AMR. The synergistic roles of co-selective agents, including heavy metals, disinfectants, and microplastics, are highlighted for their impact in exacerbating resistance gene propagation across ecological and geographical boundaries. The efficacy and limitations of current mitigation strategies, including advanced wastewater treatments, thermophilic composting, biosensor-based surveillance, and emerging regulatory frameworks, are evaluated. By integrating a One Health perspective, this review underscores the imperative of including environmental considerations in global AMR containment policies and proposes a multidisciplinary roadmap to mitigate resistance spread across interconnected human, animal, and environmental domains. | 2025 | 40867959 |
| 6472 | 11 | 0.9946 | Balancing water sustainability and public health goals in the face of growing concerns about antibiotic resistance. Global initiatives are underway to advance the sustainability of urban water infrastructure through measures such as water reuse. However, there are growing concerns that wastewater effluents are enriched in antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria, and antibiotic resistance genes, and thus could serve as a contributing factor to growing rates of antibiotic resistance in human infections. Evidence for the role of the water environment as a source and pathway for the spread of antimicrobial resistance is examined and key knowledge gaps are identified with respect to implications for sustainable water systems. Efforts on the part of engineers along with investment in research in epidemiology, risk assessment, water treatment and water delivery could advance current and future sustainable water strategies and help avoid unintended consequences. | 2014 | 24279909 |
| 6447 | 12 | 0.9945 | Climate warming fuels the global antibiotic resistome by altering soil bacterial traits. Understanding the implications of global warming on the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and virulence factor genes (VFGs) within soil ecosystems is crucial for safeguarding human well-being and sustaining ecosystem health. However, there is currently a lack of large-scale, systematic underpinning data needed to examine this issue. Here, using an integrative approach that combines field experiments, extensive global metagenomic data and microbial culturing, we show that warming enriches bacteria with ARGs and VFGs, increases metabolic complexity and adaptability in bacteria, and accelerates genetic alterations related to ARG and VFGs development. Our validation experiments confirm that the warming effect is more pronounced in colder regions. Machine learning predictions further suggest that warming will increase the soil ARG abundance, especially in some areas that rely heavily on fossil fuels. These results suggest another major negative consequence of global warming, highlighting the importance of developing and implementing sustainability policies that simultaneously combat climate change and antibiotic resistance. | 2025 | 40468041 |
| 6714 | 13 | 0.9945 | Differential Drivers of Antimicrobial Resistance across the World. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest threats faced by humankind. The development of resistance in clinical and hospital settings has been well documented ever since the initial discovery of penicillin and the subsequent introduction of sulfonamides as clinical antibiotics. In contrast, the environmental (i.e., community-acquired) dimensions of resistance dissemination have been only more recently delineated. The global spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) between air, water, soil, and food is now well documented, while the factors that affect ARB and ARG dissemination (e.g., water and air quality, antibiotic fluxes, urbanization, sanitation practices) in these and other environmental matrices are just now beginning to be more fully appreciated. In this Account, we discuss how the global perpetuation of resistance is dictated by highly interconnected socioeconomic risk factors and illustrate that development status should be more fully considered when developing global strategies to address AMR. We first differentiate low to middle income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs), then we summarize the modes of action of commercially available antibiotics, and then discuss the four primary mechanisms by which bacteria develop resistance to those antibiotics. Resistance is disseminated via both vertical gene transfer (VGT; parent to offspring) as well as by horizontal gene transfer (HGT; cell to cell transference of genetic material). A key challenge hindering attempts to control resistance dissemination is the presence of native, environmental bacteria that can harbor ARGs. Such environmental "resistomes" have potential to transfer resistance to pathogens via HGT. Of particular concern is the development of resistance to antibiotics of last-resort such as the cephalosporins, carbapenems, and polymyxins. We then illustrate how antibiotic use differs in LMICs relative to HICs in terms of the volumes of antibiotics used and their fate within local environments. Antibiotic use in HICs has remained flat over the past 15 years, while in LMICs use over the same period has increased substantially as a result of economic improvements and changes in diet. These use and fate differences impact local citizens and thus the local dissemination of AMR. Various physical, social, and economic circumstances within LMICs potentially favor AMR dissemination. We focus on three physical factors: changing population density, sanitation infrastructure, and solid-waste disposal. We show that high population densities in cities within LMICs that suffer from poor sanitation and solid-waste disposal can potentially impact the dissemination of resistance. In the final section, we discuss potential monitoring approaches to quantify the spread of resistance both within LMICs as well as in HICs. We posit that culture-based approaches, molecular approaches, and cutting-edge nanotechnology-based methods for monitoring ARB and ARGs should be considered both within HICs and, as appropriate, within LMICs. | 2019 | 30848890 |
| 6532 | 14 | 0.9945 | Antibiotic resistance in urban soils: Dynamics and mitigation strategies. Antibiotic resistance (AR) is a critical global health issue with significant clinical and economic implications. AR occurs when microorganisms develop mechanisms to withstand the effects of antibiotics, reducing treatment efficacy and increasing the risk of mortality and healthcare costs. While the connection between antibiotic use in clinical and agricultural settings and the emergence of AR is well-established, the role of urban soils as reservoirs and spreaders of AR is underexplored. This review examines the complex dynamics of AR in urban soils, highlighting the various sources of antibiotics, including domestic wastewater, industrial effluents, urban agricultural practices, but also microplastics and domestic animal excrements. The selective pressure exerted by these anthropogenic sources promotes the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, particularly through horizontal gene transfer, which facilitates the transmission of resistance genes among soil microorganisms in urban environments. About that, the presence of antibiotics in urban soils poses a significant threat to public health by potentially transferring resistance genes to human pathogens through multiple pathways, including direct contact, food consumption, and water ingestion. Furthermore, AR in urban soils disrupts microbial community dynamics, impacting soil fertility, plant growth, and overall environmental quality. Therefore, this review aims to address gaps in understanding AR in urban soils, offering insights into its implications for human health and ecosystem integrity. By identifying these gaps and suggesting evidence-based strategies, this review proposes valid and sustainable solutions to mitigate and counteract the spread of AR in urban environments. | 2024 | 39384008 |
| 6397 | 15 | 0.9945 | Microplastics and antibiotic resistance genes as rising threats: Their interaction represents an urgent environmental concern. Microplastics (MPs) have been reported to be emerging contaminant of different environmental niches like air, soil, and water. When exposed to these environments, MPs interact with already existing antibiotics to create combined pollution that can harm organisms. MPs have garnered significant attention in academic circles due to their ability to adsorb antibiotics. This review article explores different dimensions of MPs, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and the interplay between MPs, antibiotics, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), emphasizing their interconnection with soil and water pollution. It also summarizes the mechanisms behind the interaction between antibiotics and MPs, detailing various physical and chemical interactions. Additionally, it outlines the pathways through which MPs and ARGs complexes spread, offering insights for future research and solutions to tackle compound pollution. The article concludes by providing targeted strategies to mitigate the environmental and public health risks posed by MP-associated ARG transmission, highlighting the need for integrated pollution control, advanced monitoring techniques, and stricter regulatory policies. | 2025 | 40756460 |
| 6473 | 16 | 0.9945 | The potential implications of reclaimed wastewater reuse for irrigation on the agricultural environment: The knowns and unknowns of the fate of antibiotics and antibiotic resistant bacteria and resistance genes - A review. The use of reclaimed wastewater (RWW) for the irrigation of crops may result in the continuous exposure of the agricultural environment to antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). In recent years, certain evidence indicate that antibiotics and resistance genes may become disseminated in agricultural soils as a result of the amendment with manure and biosolids and irrigation with RWW. Antibiotic residues and other contaminants may undergo sorption/desorption and transformation processes (both biotic and abiotic), and have the potential to affect the soil microbiota. Antibiotics found in the soil pore water (bioavailable fraction) as a result of RWW irrigation may be taken up by crop plants, bioaccumulate within plant tissues and subsequently enter the food webs; potentially resulting in detrimental public health implications. It can be also hypothesized that ARGs can spread among soil and plant-associated bacteria, a fact that may have serious human health implications. The majority of studies dealing with these environmental and social challenges related with the use of RWW for irrigation were conducted under laboratory or using, somehow, controlled conditions. This critical review discusses the state of the art on the fate of antibiotics, ARB and ARGs in agricultural environment where RWW is applied for irrigation. The implications associated with the uptake of antibiotics by plants (uptake mechanisms) and the potential risks to public health are highlighted. Additionally, knowledge gaps as well as challenges and opportunities are addressed, with the aim of boosting future research towards an enhanced understanding of the fate and implications of these contaminants of emerging concern in the agricultural environment. These are key issues in a world where the increasing water scarcity and the continuous appeal of circular economy demand answers for a long-term safe use of RWW for irrigation. | 2017 | 28689129 |
| 9581 | 17 | 0.9945 | Lateral gene transfer, bacterial genome evolution, and the Anthropocene. Lateral gene transfer (LGT) has significantly influenced bacterial evolution since the origins of life. It helped bacteria generate flexible, mosaic genomes and enables individual cells to rapidly acquire adaptive phenotypes. In turn, this allowed bacteria to mount strong defenses against human attempts to control their growth. The widespread dissemination of genes conferring resistance to antimicrobial agents has precipitated a crisis for modern medicine. Our actions can promote increased rates of LGT and also provide selective forces to fix such events in bacterial populations. For instance, the use of selective agents induces the bacterial SOS response, which stimulates LGT. We create hotspots for lateral transfer, such as wastewater systems, hospitals, and animal production facilities. Conduits of gene transfer between humans and animals ensure rapid dissemination of recent transfer events, as does modern transport and globalization. As resistance to antibacterial compounds becomes universal, there is likely to be increasing selection pressure for phenotypes with adverse consequences for human welfare, such as enhanced virulence, pathogenicity, and transmission. Improved understanding of the ecology of LGT could help us devise strategies to control this fundamental evolutionary process. | 2017 | 27706829 |
| 8163 | 18 | 0.9945 | Green materials science and engineering reduces biofouling: approaches for medical and membrane-based technologies. Numerous engineered and natural environments suffer deleterious effects from biofouling and/or biofilm formation. For instance, bacterial contamination on biomedical devices pose serious health concerns. In membrane-based technologies, such as desalination and wastewater reuse, biofouling decreases membrane lifetime, and increases the energy required to produce clean water. Traditionally, approaches have combatted bacteria using bactericidal agents. However, due to globalization, a decline in antibiotic discovery, and the widespread resistance of microbes to many commercial antibiotics and metallic nanoparticles, new materials, and approaches to reduce biofilm formation are needed. In this mini-review, we cover the recent strategies that have been explored to combat microbial contamination without exerting evolutionary pressure on microorganisms. Renewable feedstocks, relying on structure-property relationships, bioinspired/nature-derived compounds, and green processing methods are discussed. Greener strategies that mitigate biofouling hold great potential to positively impact human health and safety. | 2015 | 25852659 |
| 6668 | 19 | 0.9945 | Complexities in understanding antimicrobial resistance across domesticated animal, human, and environmental systems. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a significant threat to both human and animal health. The spread of AMR bacteria and genes across systems can occur through a myriad of pathways, both related and unrelated to agriculture, including via wastewater, soils, manure applications, direct exchange between humans and animals, and food exposure. Tracing origins and drivers of AMR bacteria and genes is challenging due to the array of contexts and the complexity of interactions overlapping health practice, microbiology, genetics, applied science and engineering, as well as social and human factors. Critically assessing the diverse and sometimes contradictory AMR literature is a valuable step in identifying tractable mitigation options to stem AMR spread. In this article we review research on the nonfoodborne spread of AMR, with a focus on domesticated animals and the environment and possible exposures to humans. Attention is especially placed on delineating possible sources and causes of AMR bacterial phenotypes, including underpinning the genetics important to human and animal health. | 2019 | 30924539 |