ArticleMicrobiome2022
Non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals promote conjugative plasmid transfer at a community-wide level.
Article in Microbiome, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Drug-microbiome-host interactions: antimicrobial effects of non-antibiotic compounds.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2026Review
- Naproxen as an emerging environmental contaminant: Microbial degradation mechanism and optimization strategies.Biodegradation · 2026Review
- Probiotics mitigate non-antibiotic drug-induced dysbiosis via protein homology-driven competitive binding.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Exploring alterations in the gut resistome in medically treated inflammatory bowel disease patients.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Environmental Consequences of Anthropogenic Pollution: Non-antibiotic-Drug-Driven Antibiotic Resistance Selection in a Model Aquatic Ecosystem.Environment & health (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Selective shifts in mobile antibiotic resistance genes under carbamazepine exposure in wastewater microbiomes.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Natural and synthetic chemicals acting as enhancers of bacterial pathogenic success within the human host.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Microbiotoxicity: an under-recognised player in drug efficacy, toxicity, and health outcomes.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 2025Review
- Towards the integration of antibiotic resistance gene mobility into environmental surveillance and risk assessment.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 2025Review
- Effects of Cigarette-Derived Compounds on the Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance in Artificial Human Lung Sputum Medium, Simulated Environmental Media, and Wastewater.Environmental health perspectives · 2025Article
- Jellyfish blooms-an overlooked hotspot and potential vector for the transmission of antimicrobial resistance in marine environments.mSystems · 2025Article
- Biochar suppresses conjugative transfer of antibiotic resistance genes in manure-amended soils.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Ecology-based approach to predict no-effect antibiotic concentrations for minimizing environmental selection of resistance.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Non-antibiotic compounds associated with humans and the environment can promote horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes.Critical reviews in microbiology · 2024Review
- Environmental microbiome diversity and stability is a barrier to antimicrobial resistance gene accumulation.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals are toxic against Escherichia coli with no evolution of cross-resistance to antibiotics.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 2024Article
- Inter-plasmid transfer of antibiotic resistance genes accelerates antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- Unrecognized risk of perfluorooctane sulfonate in promoting conjugative transfers of bacterial antibiotic resistance genes.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Roadmap to tackle antibiotic resistance in the environment under the One Health framework.mLife · 2023Article
- Cultivating antimicrobial resistance: how intensive agriculture ploughs the way for antibiotic resistance.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHorizontal gene transfer (HGT) plays a critical role in the spread of antibiotic resistance and the evolutionary shaping of bacterial communities. Conjugation is the most well characterized pathway for the spread of antibiotic resistance, compared to transformation and transduction. While antibiotics have been found to induce HGT, it remains unknown whether non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals can facilitate conjugation at a microbial community-wide level.
resultsIn this study, we demonstrate that several commonly consumed non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals (including carbamazepine, ibuprofen, naproxen and propranolol), at environmentally relevant concentrations (0.5 mg/L), can promote the conjugative transfer of IncP1-α plasmid-borne antibiotic resistance across entire microbial communities. The over-generation of reactive oxygen species in response to these non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals may contribute to the enhanced conjugation ratios. Cell sorting and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing analyses indicated that non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals modulate transconjugant microbial communities at both phylum and genus levels. Moreover, microbial uptake ability of the IncP1-α plasmid was also upregulated under non-antibiotic pharmaceutical exposure. Several opportunistic pathogens, such as Acinetobacter and Legionella, were more likely to acquire the plasmid conferring multidrug resistance.
conclusionsConsidering the high possibility of co-occurrence of pathogenic bacteria, conjugative IncP1-α plasmids and non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals in various environments (e.g., activated sludge systems), our findings illustrate the potential risk associated with increased dissemination of antibiotic resistance promoted by non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals in complex environmental settings. Video abstract.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.