Bioengineering Program, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Water Desalination and Reuse Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
Environ Sci Technol. 2022 Nov 1;56(21):15007-15018. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c01834. Epub 2022 Aug 2.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, there has been much speculation about how COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance may be interconnected. In this study, untreated wastewater was sampled from Hospital A designated to treat COVID-19 patients during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside Hospital B that did not receive any COVID-19 patients. Metagenomics was used to determine the relative abundance and mobile potential of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs), prior to determining the correlation of ARGs with time/incidence of COVID-19. Our findings showed that ARGs resistant to macrolides, sulfonamides, and tetracyclines were positively correlated with time in Hospital A but not in Hospital B. Likewise, minor extended spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) and carbapenemases of classes B and D were positively correlated with time, suggesting the selection of rare and/or carbapenem-resistant genes in Hospital A. Non-carbapenemase also positively correlated with both time and and was copresent with other ARGs including carbapenem-resistant genes in 6 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs). This study highlighted concerns related to the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) during the COVID-19 pandemic that may arise from antibiotic use and untreated hospital wastewater.
自 COVID-19 大流行开始以来，人们一直猜测 COVID-19 和抗菌素耐药性之间可能存在怎样的关联。在这项研究中，从专门收治 COVID-19 患者的医院 A 以及未接收任何 COVID-19 患者的医院 B 采集了未经处理的废水样本。使用宏基因组学来确定抗生素耐药基因（ARGs）的相对丰度和移动潜力，然后确定 ARGs 与 COVID-19 的时间/发病率之间的相关性。我们的研究结果表明，对大环内酯类、磺胺类和四环素类耐药的 ARGs 与医院 A 的时间呈正相关，但在医院 B 中则没有。同样，B 类和 D 类的少数扩展型β-内酰胺酶（ESBLs）和碳青霉烯酶也与时间呈正相关，表明在医院 A 中选择了稀有和/或碳青霉烯类耐药基因。非碳青霉烯酶类也与时间和呈正相关，并且与其他 6 个宏基因组组装基因组（MAG）中的包括碳青霉烯类耐药基因在内的其他 ARGs 共存。本研究强调了在 COVID-19 大流行期间，抗生素的使用和未经处理的医院废水可能会导致抗菌素耐药性（AMR）传播的相关问题。
