New Delhi, December 20 (IANS). Scientists at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Mohali, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, have found that nanoplastic obtained from single-use plastic bottles can increase antibiotic resistance.
Amid growing concerns about the combined dangers of plastic pollution and antibiotic resistance, a new study published in the journal Nanoscale highlights an unknown public health risk.
The research said that nanoplastics and microorganisms co-exist in diverse environments including the human gut, affecting health.
In the research, the team discovered how plastic nano particles can affect bacteria. They focused on Lactobacillus acidophilus, which plays a central role in the gut microbiota.
Dr. Manish Singh and his team investigated whether nanoplastics could turn beneficial bacteria into carriers of antibiotic-resistant genes and pose a health risk to the human gut microbiome.
They used plastic bottles to synthesize environmentally relevant nanoplastic particles, as these nanoplastics obtained from polyethylene terephthalate bottles better represent the actual nanoplastics generated due to dumping of single-use plastic bottles and containers.
Scientists demonstrated that PBNP can facilitate cross-species gene transfer from E. coli to Lactobacillus acidophilus through a process called horizontal gene transfer (HGT). This occurs exclusively in bacteria through outer membrane vesicle (OMV) secretion.
They reported that there are two novel mechanisms through which PBNPs facilitate antibiotic resistance gene transfer. One of them is through the direct transformation pathway in which PBNPs act as physical carriers that transport antibiotic resistance plasmids across bacterial membranes and promote direct gene transfer between bacteria.
The second pathway is through the OMV induced transfer pathway, in which PBNPs induce oxidative stress and damage to bacterial surfaces, which activates stress response genes and increases outer membrane vesicle (OMV) secretion.
These OMVs loaded with antibiotic resistance genes become powerful vehicles for gene transfer across bacterial species, facilitating the spread of antibiotic resistance genes even among unrelated bacteria. This highlights an important and previously overlooked dimension of the effects of nanoplastics on microbial communities.
The study highlights how nanoplastics may unexpectedly contribute to the antibiotic resistance crisis, as it incorporates antibiotic resistance genes into beneficial gut bacteria such as Lactobacillus acidophilus, which can then transfer these genes to pathogens. Is.
This indicates that beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus acidophilus can act as a reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes, which can transfer these genes to pathogenic bacteria during infection.
–IANS
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