Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Water Res. 2022 Oct 1;224:119060. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.119060. Epub 2022 Sep 6.
The global spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) has wreaked havoc with the treatment efficiency of antibiotics and, ultimately, anti-microbial chemotherapy, and has been conventionally attributed to the abuse and misuse of antibiotics. However, the ancient ARGs have alterative functions in bacterial physiology and thus they could be co-regulated by non-antibiotic conditions. Recent research has demonstrated that many non-antibiotic chemicals such as microplastics, metallic nanoparticles and non-antibiotic drugs, as well as some non-antibiotic conditions, can accelerate the dissemination of ARGs. These results suggested that the role of antibiotics might have been previously overestimated whereas the effects of non-antibiotic conditions were possibly ignored. Thus, in an attempt to fully understand the fate and behavior of ARGs in the eco-system, it is urgent to critically highlight the role and mechanisms of non-antibiotic chemicals and related environmental factors in the spread of ARGs. To this end, this timely review assessed the evolution of ARGs, especially its function alteration, summarized the non-antibiotic chemicals promoting the spread of ARGs, evaluated the non-antibiotic conditions related to ARG dissemination and analyzed the molecular mechanisms related to spread of ARGs induced by the non-antibiotic factors. Finally, this review then provided several critical perspectives for future research.
抗生素耐药基因（ARGs）在全球范围内的传播，严重影响了抗生素的治疗效果，最终影响了抗菌化疗，这通常归因于抗生素的滥用和误用。然而，古老的 ARGs 在细菌生理学中具有替代功能，因此它们可以受到非抗生素条件的共同调节。最近的研究表明，许多非抗生素化学物质，如微塑料、金属纳米颗粒和非抗生素药物，以及一些非抗生素条件，可以加速 ARGs 的传播。这些结果表明，抗生素的作用可能以前被高估了，而非抗生素条件的影响可能被忽视了。因此，为了充分了解 ARGs 在生态系统中的命运和行为，迫切需要批判性地强调非抗生素化学物质和相关环境因素在 ARGs 传播中的作用和机制。为此，本及时审查评估了 ARGs 的演变，特别是其功能的改变，总结了促进 ARGs 传播的非抗生素化学物质，评估了与 ARG 传播相关的非抗生素条件，并分析了非抗生素因素诱导 ARGs 传播的分子机制。最后，本综述为未来的研究提供了几个关键视角。
