Environmental antibiotics and resistance genes as emerging contaminants: Methods of detection and bioremediation

Abstract

In developing countries, the use of antibiotics has helped to reduce the mortality rate by minimizing the deaths caused by pathogenic infections, but the costs of antibiotic contamination remain a major concern. Antibiotics are released into the environment, creating a complicated environmental problem. Antibiotics are used in human, livestock and agriculture, contributing to its escalation in the environment. Environmental antibiotics pose a range of risks and have significant effects on human and animal health. Nevertheless, this is the result of the development of antibiotic-resistant and multi-drug-resistant bacteria. In the area of health care, animal husbandry and crop processing, the imprudent use of antibiotic drugs produces antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This threat is the deepest in the developing world, with an estimated 700,000 people suffering from antibiotic-resistant infections each year. The study explores how bacteria use a wide variety of antibiotic resistance mechanism and how these approaches have an impact on the environment and on our health. The paper focuses on the processes by which antibiotics degrade, the health effects of these emerging contaminants, and the tolerance of bacteria to antibiotics.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance genes; Emerging pollutants; Livestock production; Pharmaceutical products.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

Pathways of pharmaceuticals to the environment.

Fig 2

In Mycobacterium abscessus, aminoglycoside covalently modifying enzymes that modify the aminoglycoside groups from the antibiotic molecule via acetyltransferases - AAC (2׳), Eis2; and phosphotransferase - APH (3׳׳) (Luthra et al., 2018).