Curcuma and rhubarb chemicals could help fight antibiotic -resistant bacteria hiding in wastewater

When people take antibiotics, part of the dose is excreted with urine and excrement and finds itself in our wastewater. The presence of this low dose of antibiotic creates an opportunity for resistant bacteria to evolve.

Scientists studying bacteria resistant to antibiotics in wastewater in a treatment plant have discovered strains of bacterial species with several drugs which are generally not dangerous for healthy people, but which could transmit genes for antibiotic resistance to much more dangerous bacteria like E. coli.

Scientists then challenged bacteria with natural compounds that could potentially be included in wastewater treatment to kill bacteria and fight against antibiotic resistance. The most effective were curcumin, which comes from turmeric, and from the Emodin, the rhubarb.

“Without improved treatment, wastewater could serve as a reproductive ground for superbacing ” which can enter water resources such as rivers, lakes and tanks, posing potential risks for public health,” said Dr. Liyuan “Joanna ‘Hou of UTA UTA University, main author of the article in the article in the article in the article in the article in the article Borders in microbiology.

“Our objective was to isolate and characterize multidlying bacteria, to explore the molecular resistance mechanisms by sequencing the whole genome and to assess the potential of natural compounds as alternative mitigation strategies.”

Survival of resistance fighters

Antibiotic resistance develops when bacteria are changing to be less vulnerable to antibiotics. This is more likely to happen if bacteria are exposed to a dose of vaccine which is too low to kill them all; Survivors develop resistance. A person infected with these resistant bacteria can then see that their treatment does not work, which potentially makes surgery or a routine disease much more dangerous.

Some bacteria resist several antibiotics; These infections are often treated with “last resort” drugs such as the package. However, when Hou and his colleagues tested effluent samples from a Logan wastewater treatment plant in UTAH, they found colonies of bacteria that were even resistant to packages. This highlights the urgency of finding ways to prevent and treat bacterial infections that minimize the use of antibiotics.

Scientists have examined their samples using an antibiotic, sulfamethoxazole, to identify nine different antibiotic resistant strains. These strains of bacteria were then tested against several classes of antibiotics to see how much they resisted.

Their genomes have also been sequenced, which allowed scientists to identify not only the bacteria themselves, but also genes that contribute to their resistance to antibiotics. A strain, U2, which had the greatest number and the variety of antibiotic resistance genes, was resistant to all the tested antibiotics.

The strains represented species of microbacterium, chryseobacterium, lactococcus lactis and psychrobacter, which are rarely dangerous for most people, but that does not mean that their presence is nothing to fear.

“Although they are not traditionally classified as higher priority clinical pathogens, some are opportunistic pathogens associated with infections such as pneumonia in immunocompromised individuals,” said Hou. “These bacteria could also act as environmental tanks, transferring resistance genes to other bacteria, including clinically relevant pathogens.”

Ride

Scientists challenged the colonies of these bacteria with different concentrations of 11 natural compounds: Berberine, Chlorflavonin, Chrysin, Curcumin, Emodine, Hesperidine, Narinine, Quercetine, Resveratrol, Rutin and 2′-Hydroxyflavone. They then examined various measures of colonies’ health – cell growth, biofilm formation and how active bacteria were.

“We have selected a panel of compounds mainly derived from plants, such as curcumin of turmeric, quercetin of onions and apples, and rhubarb emodine,” said Hou.

“These compounds have been chosen according to their antimicrobial or anti-biofilm properties reported in previous studies and their natural abundance, which makes promising candidates to explore new approaches to the environment to mitigate resistance.”

They found that emodine and curcumin were the best to inhibit cell growth and the formation of biofilms, while curcumin and a higher dose of cellular activity have reduced activity – although a low dose of emodine increases activity for several strains. However, gram negative -like bacteria like chryseobacterium were resistant to all compounds.

“While natural compounds such as curcumin and emodine are promising by inhibiting gram-positive multidistant bacteria, additional research is necessary,” said Hou.

“Future work should include the test of these compounds in complex wastewater matrices, exploration of synergistic effects with existing processing processes and the evaluation of long -term impacts on microbial communities and resistance dynamics.