Review
Antibiotic resistance in urban runoff

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.183Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Urban runoffs have significance in environmental antibiotic resistance.

  • Urban waters are hot spot of antibiotic resistance spread.

  • Investigations on urban waters are needed in the context of global infection control.

Abstract

Aquatic ecosystems subjected to anthropogenic pressures are places of rapid evolution of microbial communities and likely hotspots for selection and emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria. In urban settings, water quality and the risk of infection are generally assessed in sewers and in effluents of wastewater treatment plants. Physical and chemical parameters as well as the presence of antibiotics, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes of resistance are driven by urban activities, with adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems.

In this paper we review the environmental pressures exerted on bacterial communities in urban runoff waters and discuss the impact of these settings on antibiotic resistance. Considering the worrisome epidemiology of infectious diseases and estimated mortality due to antimicrobial resistance in the coming decades, there is an urgent need to identify all environmental reservoirs of resistant bacteria and resistance genes to complete our knowledge of the epidemiological cycle and of the dynamics of urban antibiotic resistance.

Section snippets

The global threat of environmental antibiotic resistance

After decades of excessive use of antibiotics (ABs) in human and animal medicine, as well as in animal husbandry and agriculture, the global spread of antibiotic resistance has become a major threat to public health because it compromises our ability to treat infectious diseases. The overuse of antibiotics has led not only to their accumulation in the environment but to even more significant, to the selection of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and their antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) (

Selective pressure and dose-effect of antibiotics in the environment

Bacteria have their own resistance determinants that are intrinsically inherited or acquired by mutation or horizontal gene transfer (HGT) under selective pressure. It is believed that a resistant bacterium is selected by ABs at concentrations lower than minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the bacterium, while all the susceptible bacteria displaying lower MICs are killed. According to this classical theory, the very low concentrations of ABs assumed to be found in surface water and in the

The urban water cycle

The natural cycle of water mainly involves rainfall, runoff onto soil surfaces, infiltration, storage in the soil or in plants, evaporation and infiltration into the aquifer. As water management is a challenge in the context of rampant urbanization, models are being designed specifically for the urban water cycle which mainly includes water inputs (supply sources and precipitation) and inputs of contaminants (for reviews see (Peña-Guzmán et al., 2017; Yazdanfar and Sharma, 2015)). One way for

Physical and chemical parameters that may impact antibiotic resistance in urban runoff

The human impact represented by the presence of domestic and industrial sewage effluents in runoff has been shown to cause an increase in temperature downstream (Shakir et al., 2013). Temperature has a direct impact on the life cycle of most living beings and particularly on bacterial growth. Obviously, atmospheric temperature and the season influence the temperature of surface waters, but the temperature of runoff water can also be affected by human activities particularly by industrial

Natural antibiotics

Several ABs are produced naturally in the environment by soil microorganisms, for example, β-lactams produced by Penicillium, Cephalosporium or Actinomycetes, and aminoglycosides or tetracyclines produced by Streptomyces (Kümmerer, 2009a). The main function of natural ABs is to inhibit the growth of other community members thus favoring their producers in the competition for resources. The concentrations of naturally produced ABs are expected to be low (ng/L), therefore their contribution to

Soil

The most frequently detected bacteria in aquatic ecosystems belong to the phyla Proteobacteria (Alpha-, Beta-, and Gamma-proteobacteria), Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes (Vaz-Moreira et al., 2014). Microbial community composition and structure are highly diverse and are correlated with the geographic location, season and point-source pollution (Zhou et al., 2017). Bacterial communities in aquatic environment contain both autochthonous members (aquatic bacteria also found in

Antibiotic resistant bacteria in urban runoffs

Local conditions influence the prevalence of ARB in hydrosystems. Resistant microorganisms colonizing sediments can be easily moved through the overlying water column under the influence of river management or of natural events like heavy rainfall (Griffith et al., 2010). High prevalence of multidrug resistant E. coli was detected in riverbed sediments of the anthropically impacted Apies River (South Africa), suggesting that river sediments may act as a reservoir for resistant bacteria with

Antibiotic resistance genes and resistome in urban runoff

A comprehensive study of 285 ARGs from a polluted urban river in China showed that the abundance of ARGs was positively correlated with total organic carbon and total dissolved nitrogen (Zhou et al., 2017). In addition, ARG abundance and diversity were greatly altered by microbial community structure, itself influenced by point-source pollution (Zhou et al., 2017).

Studies that investigate ARGs and resistome specifically in runoff waters are rare but several genetic and metagenomic studies

Conclusion

Urban runoff water currently receives less attention than other water bodies concerning antibiotic resistance. However, the results of the few available studies reveal an undeniable role of runoff in the dissemination of antibiotics, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and antibiotic resistance genes in urban areas. Given the worldwide modifications of cityscapes, the disequilibrium between rural and urban populations and the high population density in cities, combined with the continuing emergence

Funding

This work was supported by funding provided by the Human-Environment Observatory of the Mediterranean Coast (OHM Littoral Méditerrannéen), Labex DRIIHM, French programme “Investissements d'Avenir” (ANR-11-LABX-0010) which is managed by the ANR, and by a doctoral fellowship (Ayad Almakki) from Campus France. We thank Pierre-Olivier Peccoz for graphical assistance.

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