Aquatic environments polluted with antibiotics and heavy metals: a human health hazard

作者：Martins Vinicius Vicente; Barboza Zanetti Maria Olivia; Pitondo Silva Andre; Stehling Eliana Guedes^*

来源：Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2014, 21(9): 5873-5878.

DOI：10.1007/s11356-014-2509-4

• Water
• Tetracycline
• Heavy metals
• Antibiotic resistance

Aquatic environments often receive wastewater containing pollutants such as antibiotics and heavy metals from hospital sewage, as well as contaminants from soil. The presence of these pollutants can increase the rate of exchange of resistant genes between environmental and pathogenic bacteria, which can make the treatment of various types of bacterial infections in humans and animals difficult, in addition to causing environmental problems such as ecological risk. In this study, two tetracycline-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (EW32 and EW33), isolated from aquatic environments close to industries and a hospital in southeastern Brazil, were investigated regarding the possible association between tetracycline and heavy metal resistance. The isolate EW32 presented a conjugative plasmid with coresistance to tetracycline and copper, reinforcing the concern that antibiotic resistance by acquisition of plasmids can be induced by the selective pressure of heavy metals in the environment.

• 出版日期2014-5