RISUD Research Seminar - Emergence, Evolution and Spread of Antibiotic Resistance Associated with Non-antibiotic Drugs

Although non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals are widely used by society with 95% of the drugs market share, little is known about whether non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals cause or accelerate the dissemination of antibiotic resistance. We have been focusing on exploring the interactions between non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals and the transmission of antibiotic resistance. Multiple bacterial models (including mutation, evolution, and horizontal gene transfer) in conjunction with in vivo animal gut microbiota assays were established to investigate antibiotic-like effects of commonly-used non-antibiotic drugs (e.g. antidepressants, anti-inflammatories and lipid-lowering drugs) on the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance. We found that these non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals not only induce the emergence of antibiotic resistance through mutation, but also promote the dissemination of antibiotic resistance via horizontal gene transfer. This was demonstrated in both pure-culture bacterial models and mixed-culture environmental samples, as well as animal gut microbiota and human gut simulators. Several common mechanisms, including over-generation of reactive oxygen species, cell membrane variation, and stress level elevation, are playing key roles. Considering the high-consumption and wide-detection of non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals, these findings emphasize concerns of non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals for the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance in human/animal gut and the environment, and advance our current understandings of the dissemination of antibiotic resistance.