Aquatic environments polluted with antibiotics and heavy metals: a human health hazard.
Aquatic environments often receive wastewater containing pollutants such as antibiotics and heavy metals from hospital sewage, as well as contaminants from soil. The presence of these pollutants can increase the rate of exchange of resistant genes between environmental and pathogenic bacteria, which can make the treatment of various types of bacterial infections in humans and animals difficult, in addition to causing environmental problems such as ecological risk. In this study, two tetracycline-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (EW32 and EW33), isolated from aquatic environments close to industries and a hospital in southeastern Brazil, were investigated regarding the possible association between tetracycline and heavy metal resistance. The isolate EW32 presented a conjugative plasmid with coresistance to tetracycline and copper, reinforcing the concern that antibiotic resistance by acquisition of plasmids can be induced by the selective pressure of heavy metals in the environment.
Departamento de Análises Clínicas, Toxicológicas e Bromatológicas, Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto, USP, Av. do Café S/N. Monte Alegre, Ribeirão Preto, SP, 14040-903, Brazil.
Vinicius Vicente
VV
Martins
Maria Olívia Barboza
MO
Zanetti
André
A
Pitondo-Silva
Eliana Guedes
EG
Stehling
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D001938:Brazil; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D010957:Plasmids / Q000187:drug effects; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012722:Sewage / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D012722:Sewage; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical