Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance: A cross-study

This review explores how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated antimicrobial resistance through increased antibiotic use, widespread disinfectant application, and massive volumes of plastic personal protective equipment waste. Researchers found that pandemic-related microplastic pollution creates additional surfaces for resistant bacteria to colonize and exchange resistance genes. The study highlights the intersection of pandemic waste management and the global antibiotic resistance crisis.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment 145 citations
Article Tier 2

COVID-19 pandemic and antimicrobial resistance in developing countries

This review examined how the COVID-19 pandemic increased antimicrobial drug use and resistance in developing countries, highlighting that improper waste disposal, hospital effluents, and microplastics acting as vectors for antibiotic-resistant organisms compound resistance risks in lower-income settings that already lack diagnostic capacity and infection control infrastructure.

2021 Discoveries 16 citations
Article Tier 2

The Microplastic-Antibiotic Resistance Connection

This review examined the link between microplastic pollution and antibiotic resistance, finding that microplastic surfaces in the environment selectively enrich antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes, creating hotspots that may amplify the spread of resistance far beyond clinical settings.

2021 Environmental contamination remediation and management 24 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

A review on the effect of micro- and nano-plastics pollution on the emergence of antimicrobial resistance

This review highlights how microplastics serve as breeding grounds for antimicrobial resistance genes, examining the overlooked interaction between plastic pollution and antibiotic resistance that poses combined threats to environmental and human health.

2022 Chemosphere 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollution interaction with disinfectant resistance genes: research progress, environmental impacts, and potential threats

This review examines how microplastics serve as carriers for bacteria that develop resistance to disinfectants, a concern that grew during the COVID-19 pandemic as disinfectant use surged. Researchers found that microorganisms on microplastic surfaces can exchange genetic material more readily, accelerating the spread of disinfectant resistance genes. The study warns that the interaction between microplastic pollution and antimicrobial resistance represents an underappreciated environmental and public health concern.

2024 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging Antibiotic Resistance Genes in the Aquatic Ecosystems: a Review

A review of 30 studies found antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) widely distributed across aquatic ecosystems — in surface water, groundwater, wastewater, and notably on plastic and microplastic debris in these environments. Microplastics appear to provide favorable surfaces for the growth and exchange of resistant bacteria, making plastic pollution a potential vector for spreading antibiotic resistance. The findings highlight an understudied intersection between microplastic contamination and the global antibiotic resistance crisis.

2023 Borneo AKademika
Article Tier 2

On the Generation, Impact and Removal of Antibiotic Resistance in the Water Environment

This review explains how antibiotic resistance develops and spreads through water environments — including rivers, groundwater, and wastewater. The findings are relevant to microplastics because plastic particles in water are known to accumulate antibiotic-resistant bacteria, potentially accelerating the spread of drug resistance through aquatic systems.

2023 BIO Web of Conferences 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Prevalence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products, microplastics and co-infecting microbes in the post-COVID-19 era and its implications on antimicrobial resistance and potential endocrine disruptive effects

This review examines how the COVID-19 pandemic increased environmental contamination from pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and microplastics, all of which can promote antibiotic resistance and disrupt hormones. The surge in mask use, sanitizer disposal, and medication contributed to higher levels of these pollutants in waterways. The combination of microplastics with pharmaceutical residues creates a compounding threat where plastics can carry drug-resistant bacteria and hormone-disrupting chemicals into water supplies.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 37 citations
Article Tier 2

Selective enrichment of antibiotic resistome and bacterial pathogens by aquatic microplastics

This review found that microplastics in aquatic environments selectively enrich antibiotic-resistant bacteria, resistance genes, and bacterial pathogens in their biofilms, making plastic debris a potential vector for spreading antimicrobial resistance.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 27 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and their role in the emergence of antibiotic resistance in bacteria as a threat for the environment

Researchers reviewed how microplastics act as breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant bacteria by providing surfaces where bacteria can swap resistance genes with each other — a process called horizontal gene transfer. This dual threat of plastic pollution and antibiotic resistance is compounding into a significant global public health crisis.

2025 Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Selection for antimicrobial resistance in the plastisphere

This review examines how microplastics in the environment may contribute to the spread of antimicrobial resistance by providing surfaces where bacteria, antibiotics, and resistant genes converge. Researchers describe several mechanisms by which the microbial communities living on microplastics, known as the plastisphere, could accelerate horizontal gene transfer of resistance traits. The study highlights an emerging concern at the intersection of plastic pollution and the global antimicrobial resistance crisis.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental drivers of antibiotic resistance: Synergistic effects of climate change, co-pollutants, and microplastics

This review examines how climate change, chemical pollutants, and microplastics work together to accelerate the spread of antibiotic resistance, a growing global health crisis. Microplastics provide surfaces where bacteria form communities that exchange resistance genes, and as these plastics age in the environment, they become even better at absorbing other pollutants, creating hotspots that amplify drug resistance.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 15 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

Microplastics and Their Role in the Maintenance and Spread of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Marine Ecosystems

This review examines the role of microplastics in maintaining and spreading antibiotic resistance genes in marine ecosystems, synthesizing evidence that plastic pollution in aquatic environments creates reservoirs for antimicrobial resistant bacteria and facilitates horizontal gene transfer.

2022 Antibiot Khimioter = Antibiotics and Chemotherapy 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Dissemination Of Antibiotic Resistance Via Wastewater And Surface Water

This review examined how antibiotic-resistant bacteria spread through wastewater and surface water, noting that microplastics in wastewater can carry resistant bacteria into the environment. Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health crisis, and plastic pollution is one pathway accelerating its spread in waterways.

2021 Research Repository (Delft University of Technology)
Article Tier 2

Interplay Between Antimicrobial Resistance and Global Environmental Change

This review explores how global environmental changes, including pollution, climate change, and habitat destruction, are accelerating the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Researchers found that factors like microplastic pollution, heavy metals, and pharmaceutical waste create conditions that promote the evolution of resistant bacteria. The study suggests that addressing antimicrobial resistance requires considering it as an environmental problem, not just a medical one.

2023 Annual Review of Genetics 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Interaction of Microplastics with Antibiotics in Aquatic Environment: Distribution, Adsorption, and Toxicity

This review examines how microplastics and antibiotics interact in waterways, finding that microplastics can absorb antibiotics from the water and change their availability and toxicity to aquatic organisms. Critically, microplastics also provide surfaces where antibiotic resistance genes can accumulate and spread among bacteria. This is concerning for human health because it means microplastics in water could be accelerating the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections.

2021 Environmental Science & Technology 415 citations
Article Tier 2

The Role of the Environment (Water, Air, Soil) in the Emergence and Dissemination of Antimicrobial Resistance: A One Health Perspective

This review examines how water, soil, and air act as reservoirs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, with microplastics highlighted as one of several agents that help spread drug-resistant genes across environments. The findings matter for human health because microplastics can carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria from wastewater and agricultural runoff into water supplies and food systems.

2025 Antibiotics 16 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