通过亚致死剂量的抗生素和重金属筛选多重耐药质粒。
Selection of a multidrug resistance plasmid by sublethal levels of antibiotics and heavy metals.
作者信息
Gullberg Erik, Albrecht Lisa M, Karlsson Christoffer, Sandegren Linus, Andersson Dan I
机构信息
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
出版信息
mBio. 2014 Oct 7;5(5):e01918-14. doi: 10.1128/mBio.01918-14.
How sublethal levels of antibiotics and heavy metals select for clinically important multidrug resistance plasmids is largely unknown. Carriage of plasmids generally confers substantial fitness costs, implying that for the plasmid-carrying bacteria to be maintained in the population, the plasmid cost needs to be balanced by a selective pressure conferred by, for example, antibiotics or heavy metals. We studied the effects of low levels of antibiotics and heavy metals on the selective maintenance of a 220-kbp extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) plasmid identified in a hospital outbreak of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli. The concentrations of antibiotics and heavy metals required to maintain plasmid-carrying bacteria, the minimal selective concentrations (MSCs), were in all cases below (almost up to 140-fold) the MIC of the plasmid-free susceptible bacteria. This finding indicates that the very low antibiotic and heavy metal levels found in polluted environments and in treated humans and animals might be sufficiently high to maintain multiresistance plasmids. When resistance genes were moved from the plasmid to the chromosome, the MSC decreased, showing that MSC for a specific resistance conditionally depends on genetic context. This finding suggests that a cost-free resistance could be maintained in a population by an infinitesimally low concentration of antibiotic. By studying the effect of combinations of several compounds, it was observed that for certain combinations of drugs each new compound added lowered the minimal selective concentration of the others. This combination effect could be a significant factor in the selection of multidrug resistance plasmids/bacterial clones in complex multidrug environments. Importance: Antibiotic resistance is in many pathogenic bacteria caused by genes that are carried on large conjugative plasmids. These plasmids typically contain multiple antibiotic resistance genes as well as genes that confer resistance to biocides and heavy metals. In this report, we show that very low concentrations of single antibiotics and heavy metals or combinations of compounds can select for a large plasmid that carries resistance to aminoglycosides, β-lactams, tetracycline, macrolides, trimethoprim, sulfonamide, silver, copper, and arsenic. Our findings suggest that the low levels of antibiotics and heavy metals present in polluted external environments and in treated animals and humans could allow for selection and enrichment of bacteria with multiresistance plasmids and thereby contribute to the emergence, maintenance, and transmission of antibiotic-resistant disease-causing bacteria.
抗生素和重金属的亚致死水平如何选择临床上重要的多重耐药质粒,目前很大程度上尚不清楚。携带质粒通常会带来相当大的适应性代价,这意味着对于携带质粒的细菌要在种群中维持下去,质粒代价需要通过例如抗生素或重金属所赋予的选择压力来平衡。我们研究了低水平抗生素和重金属对在医院爆发的肺炎克雷伯菌和大肠杆菌中鉴定出的一个220kb的超广谱β-内酰胺酶(ESBL)质粒的选择性维持的影响。维持携带质粒细菌所需的抗生素和重金属浓度,即最小选择浓度(MSCs),在所有情况下都低于(几乎高达140倍)无质粒敏感细菌的最低抑菌浓度(MIC)。这一发现表明,在污染环境以及接受治疗的人类和动物体内发现的极低抗生素和重金属水平可能足以维持多重耐药质粒。当耐药基因从质粒转移到染色体上时,最小选择浓度降低,这表明特定耐药性的最小选择浓度有条件地取决于基因背景。这一发现表明,通过无限低浓度的抗生素可以在种群中维持无代价的耐药性。通过研究几种化合物组合的效果,观察到对于某些药物组合,每添加一种新化合物都会降低其他化合物的最小选择浓度。这种组合效应可能是在复杂多药环境中选择多重耐药质粒/细菌克隆的一个重要因素。重要性:许多病原菌中的抗生素耐药性是由大的接合质粒携带的基因引起的。这些质粒通常包含多个抗生素耐药基因以及赋予对杀菌剂和重金属耐药性的基因。在本报告中,我们表明,极低浓度的单一抗生素、重金属或化合物组合可以选择携带对氨基糖苷类、β-内酰胺类、四环素、大环内酯类、甲氧苄啶、磺胺类、银、铜和砷耐药性的大质粒。我们的研究结果表明,污染的外部环境以及接受治疗的动物和人类体内存在的低水平抗生素和重金属可能会导致具有多重耐药质粒的细菌被选择和富集,从而有助于耐药致病细菌的出现、维持和传播。