Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Microplastics as emerging reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance: Clinical relevance and environmental mechanisms

This review examines how microplastics act as environmental reservoirs for antibiotic resistance genes, creating selective microenvironments through antibiotic and metal adsorption, biofilm formation, and horizontal gene transfer, with potential pathways to clinical human exposure.

2025 Journal of Clinical and Experimental Investigations
Article Tier 2

Evolution and Emergence of Antibiotic Resistance in Given Ecosystems: Possible Strategies for Addressing the Challenge of Antibiotic Resistance

This review traces the history of antibiotic resistance and examines how it evolves and spreads across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Researchers discuss the ecological roles of antibiotics and the modern tools used to identify resistant organisms in various environments. The study highlights the ecotoxicological impact of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and explores potential strategies, including environmental monitoring, to address this growing public health challenge.

2022 Antibiotics 54 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Biofilms as Reservoirs for Antimicrobial Resistance

This review examined how environmental biofilms serve as reservoirs for antimicrobial resistance, particularly in settings with low, sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics. The study suggests that constant exposure to low levels of antibiotics in natural environments may drive the development and dissemination of resistance, highlighting key knowledge gaps in understanding the environmental resistome.

2021 Frontiers in Microbiology 72 citations
Article Tier 2

Novel Insights into the Antimicrobial Resistance and Strategies to Curb the Menace

This review covers the mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance emergence and spread, summarizing novel strategies to combat resistance including phage therapy, antivirulence compounds, and enhanced surveillance, and discusses how environmental contamination including microplastics may contribute to resistance.

2024 Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Effect of Protists on Horizontal Transfer of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Water Environment

This review examined how protists in aquatic environments facilitate horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes among bacteria, revealing novel mechanisms beyond classical conjugation, transformation, and transduction that contribute to antimicrobial resistance spread.

2023 Journal of Water and Environment Technology 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Aeromonas spp. in Freshwater Bodies: Antimicrobial Resistance and Biofilm Assembly

Researchers isolated Aeromonas bacteria from freshwater sources and examined their ability to resist antibiotics and form protective biofilms. They found that many strains carried multiple antibiotic resistance genes and could form biofilms that made them harder to eliminate. The study highlights the role of freshwater environments as reservoirs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can potentially affect both animal and human health.

2024 Antibiotics 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Metagenomic insights into taxonomic, functional diversity and inhibitors of microbial biofilms

This review examines the structure, diversity, and quorum-sensing mechanisms of microbial biofilms, highlighting metagenomic approaches for understanding how biofilms promote antibiotic resistance and pathogen spread in hospitals and industrial settings.

2022 Microbiological Research 28 citations
Article Tier 2

The Influence of Coalescent Microbiotic Particles From Water and Soil on the Evolution and Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance

This review examines how microbiotic particles in water and soil serve as hotspots for bacterial interactions, facilitating the evolution and horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes between ecologically distant bacterial species through biofilm formation on particle surfaces.

2022 Frontiers in Environmental Science 22 citations
Article Tier 2

Mechanisms of Bacterial Resistance to Heavy Metals: A Mini Review

This review summarizes mechanisms of bacterial resistance to heavy metals, including sequestration, efflux, and transformation processes, providing insight into how microorganisms adapt to heavy metal pollution in contaminated environments.

2023 UMYU Scientifica 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Combating antimicrobial resistance: the silent war

This review examines the growing global crisis of antimicrobial resistance, where bacteria become immune to antibiotics due to overuse in medicine and agriculture. Although focused on drug resistance, the paper is relevant to microplastic research because microplastics have been shown to harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria and facilitate the transfer of resistance genes in the environment, potentially making this public health crisis worse.

2024 Frontiers in Pharmacology 35 citations
Article Tier 2

The Fate and Occurrence of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and Antibiotic Resistance Genes during Advanced Wastewater Treatment and Disinfection: A Review

This review examines how advanced wastewater treatment and disinfection methods perform at removing antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their resistance genes. While methods like UV, ozone, and membrane filtration reduce resistance levels, none fully eliminate them, and some treatments can even promote gene transfer. Since wastewater plants are key nodes where antibiotic resistance spreads to the environment, improving these treatment processes is critical for public health.

2023 Water 47 citations
Article Tier 2

Reducing bacterial antibiotic resistance by targeting bacterial metabolic pathways and disrupting RND efflux pump activity

This review examines strategies to overcome antibiotic resistance by targeting bacterial metabolic pathways and disrupting efflux pump systems that expel antibiotics from bacterial cells. The paper is focused on pharmaceutical microbiology rather than microplastic contamination.

2022 Iberoamerican Journal of Medicine 7 citations
Article Tier 2

The Complex Interplay Between Antibiotic Resistance and Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products in the Environment

This review explores the complex relationship between antibiotic-resistant bacteria, antibiotic resistance genes, and environmental contaminants including pharmaceuticals and personal care products. Researchers found that antibiotic resistance is often elevated in human-impacted environments, particularly where faecal waste and chemical contaminant mixtures are present. The study highlights how environmental pollution, including microplastic contamination, may contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance through horizontal gene transfer and bacterial adaptation.

2022 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 44 citations
Article Tier 2

Versatility of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia: Ecological roles of RND efflux pumps

Researchers reviewed the ecological roles of molecular pumps in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, a widespread environmental bacterium, finding these pumps help the microbe adapt to diverse habitats — not just resist antibiotics as previously assumed. Understanding these pumps' broader functions in soil, water, and plant environments could inform strategies to manage antibiotic resistance and understand how bacteria colonize multiple niches.

2023 Heliyon 22 citations
Article Tier 2

Genomic and Transcriptomic Analyses Reveal Multiple Strategies for Vibrio parahaemolyticus to Tolerate Sub-Lethal Concentrations of Three Antibiotics

Researchers investigated how the seafood pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus develops tolerance to multiple antibiotics at the genomic and gene expression levels. They found that the bacteria use several strategies including activating drug efflux pumps, modifying cell membranes, and altering metabolic pathways to survive antibiotic exposure. The study highlights the growing concern of antibiotic-resistant foodborne pathogens in aquaculture environments.

2024 Foods 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Investigating Biofilms: Advanced Methods for Comprehending Microbial Behavior and Antibiotic Resistance

This review summarizes recent advances in biofilm research, focusing on how communities of microorganisms form protective layers on surfaces and become resistant to antibiotics. The sticky matrix that holds biofilms together plays a key role in spreading antibiotic resistance genes between bacteria. While not directly about microplastics, the findings are relevant because microplastics in the environment serve as surfaces where these resistant biofilms can form and spread.

2024 Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark 36 citations
Article Tier 2

Abundance and Antimicrobial Resistance of Three Bacterial Species along a Complete Wastewater Pathway

A year-long study of a Swedish wastewater pathway found that antibiotic-resistant bacteria were most abundant in hospital wastewater and that resistance profiles mirrored local antibiotic consumption. Wastewater treatment plants also process microplastics, and understanding how bacteria move through these systems is relevant to the plastisphere's role in spreading resistance.

2019 Microorganisms 44 citations
Article Tier 2

Water and sanitation: an essential battlefront in the war on antimicrobial resistance

This review examines the role of water and sanitation infrastructure in combating antimicrobial resistance, identifying wastewater and contaminated water as key transmission routes for resistant bacteria and resistance genes. While focused on AMR broadly, the study notes that microplastics in water systems can serve as substrates for biofilm formation and may facilitate the spread of antimicrobial resistance in aquatic environments.

2018 FEMS Microbiology Ecology 181 citations
Article Tier 2

Biofilms: hot spots of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in aquatic environments, with a focus on a new HGT mechanism

This review covers horizontal gene transfer in aquatic biofilms, with emphasis on antibiotic resistance gene spread, and introduces membrane vesicles as a newly recognized HGT mechanism by which bacteria share genetic material, with implications for understanding resistance spread on microplastic surfaces.

2020 FEMS Microbiology Ecology 396 citations
Article Tier 2

Transmission and Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Animals, Food, Humans and the Environment

This research review shows that antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their genes are now found everywhere—in people, animals, food, and the environment—not just in hospitals like we used to think. The bacteria can easily share their resistance genes with each other, allowing "superbugs" to spread rapidly between different environments. This matters because it means antibiotic-resistant infections are becoming harder to treat and can reach us through multiple pathways, making it crucial to tackle this problem across all areas of health and the environment at once.

2026 Microorganisms
Article Tier 2

Antimicrobial and the Resistances in the Environment: Ecological and Health Risks, Influencing Factors, and Mitigation Strategies

This review examines how antimicrobial contamination in the environment contributes to the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance. Researchers found that residual antimicrobials from medical and agricultural use continuously enter ecosystems, promoting the spread of resistant bacteria and resistance genes. The study highlights environmental factors that are often overlooked and discusses strategies for reducing antimicrobial pollution and limiting resistance spread.

2023 Toxics 58 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of wastewater treatment plant effluent discharge on the antibiotic resistome in downstream aquatic environments: a mini review

This review summarizes how wastewater treatment plants release antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes into rivers and lakes through their treated water. Current treatment processes cannot fully remove these resistance factors, allowing them to spread in downstream water bodies and potentially reach humans through drinking water and the food chain. The review is relevant to microplastics research because microplastics in wastewater can serve as surfaces where resistant bacteria grow and spread.

2023 Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering 31 citations
Article Tier 2

How microplastics and nanoplastics shape antibiotic resistance?

This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics act as vectors for antibiotic resistance genes, facilitating their spread through environmental and biological systems by creating selective pressure and hosting microbial communities that exchange resistance determinants.

2022 Water Emerging Contaminants & Nanoplastics 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Growth and prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in microplastic biofilm from wastewater treatment plant effluents

Researchers studied antibiotic-resistant bacteria growing in biofilms on microplastic surfaces in wastewater treatment plant effluent. The study found that microplastic biofilms accumulated antibiotic-resistant bacteria including Pseudomonas, Aeromonas, and Bacillus, and that these biofilms harbored higher concentrations of resistance genes compared to surrounding water, suggesting microplastics may serve as reservoirs for antibiotic resistance.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 51 citations