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Nanogels in Medicine
Published in Vladimir Torchilin, Handbook of Materials for Nanomedicine, 2020
Khushwant S. Yadav, Bala Prabhakar
Among the infectious diseases, bacterial infections remain a significant threat in healthcare due to emergence of antibiotic resistance. Although antibiotics are available to treat bacterial infections, the bacterial infections are still responsible for many deaths or serious illnesses. This is due to the fact that either these bacteria are drug-resistant strains or they are well protected within the cells escaping the immune system. Hospital-acquired infections are another reason for growing bacterial infections in both numbers and severity. This necessitates treating and targeting bacteria locally and specifically. Bacterial infections can be targeted passively as they lead to increase in vascular permeability of cells and tissues. Proteases enzymes are released by bacteria which can act as trigger for understanding inflammatory response. There is increased vascular permeability leading to gap widening and dysfunctional lymphatic drainage can be targeted by the nano-sized drug delivery.
Recent Trends in Bioprocessing of Antibiotic Residues and Their Resistant Genes in Solid Waste
Published in Sunil Kumar, Zengqiang Zhang, Mukesh Kumar Awasthi, Ronghua Li, Biological Processing of Solid Waste, 2019
Shashi Arya, Rena, Digambar Chavan, Sunil Kumar
Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change their response to the particular drug or medicine. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria may harm animals and humans, and infections caused by these bacteria are very hard to treat because of their resistant to drugs (Berkner et al., 2014). Infectious diseases such as pneumonia, gonorrhea, and tuberculosis are becoming harder to treat because of overuse of antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is growing to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world. New resistance mechanisms of bacteria are emerging and spreading globally, threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are posing a major threat to humans and animals and to food security. Overuse of antibiotics in animals and humans accelerates the process of resistant in bacteria. An approach to prevent the misuse of antibiotics is urgently needed to deal with the major threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/antibiotic-resistance/en/).
Fungal Treatment of Pharmaceuticals in Effluents
Published in Mu Naushad, Life Cycle Assessment of Wastewater Treatment, 2018
Arash Jahandideh, Sara Mardani, Rachel McDaniel, Bruce Bleakley, Gary Anderson
It is believed that antibiotic resistance genes develop when bacteria are exposed to sublethal doses of antibiotics. The presence of antibiotics in wastewater discharges and the marine ecosystem is believed to be associated with the development of these antibacterial-resistant pathogen bacteria. Bioremediation methods based on the WRF and their oxidative enzymes are a green alternative to conventional sewage sludge wastewater treatment technologies, and it appears that they may achieve higher overall degradation yields of antibiotics than the conventional technologies. Fungal treatment has been shown to be very promising in terms of the removal of antibiotics in the influent. In addition, the successful use of WRF has been reported for treating contaminated solid substrates. Treated sewage sludge that is applied for land improvement must meet specific regulations for microbial pathogens and other classic pollutants before being used in land improvement applications (Henry and Cole, 1997). However, the current regulations are mostly focused on the reduction of pathogens and metals (Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al., 2012a; Fytili and Zabaniotou, 2008). It is well known that pharmaceuticals can be accumulated in sewage sludge in high concentrations. Legislation related to pharmaceuticals does not exist (Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al., 2012a). Similar legislation must be developed to address the safe content of pharmaceuticals in biosolids. WRF are promising candidates for the removal of pharmaceuticals from sewage sludge, especially from industrial or hospital WWTPs.
Culturing the uncultured microbial majority in activated sludge: A critical review
Published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 2023
Other than the possibility to improve pollution removal efficiency, the cultivation of new taxa has unlimited potential in the applications associated with human health. For example, new species may lead to the discovery of novel antibiotics as microorganisms are the major source of antimicrobial agents and we need to keep discovering innovative antibiotics to counteract the emergence of antibiotic resistance (Folgori et al., 2017). What’s more, the new taxa in activated sludge could be the potential degraders of the emerging pollutants such as antibiotics (Liu et al., 2021) and microplastics (Liu et al., 2019). Besides, new species could be used in clinical treatments such as human microbiota transplantation, a method to treat disease by transferring functional microorganisms into patients’ guts to help them restore microbial diversity (van Nood et al., 2013).
Co-occurence of antibiotics and micro(nano)plastics: a systematic review between 2016-2021
Published in Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A, 2022
While antibiotics can upgrade life for some living-systems life, they also can have adverse effects. It is likely that global antibiotic consumption has increased due to the increasing human population and the increasing demand for animal protein.[18] Moreover, due to their overuse and misuse, the high consumption of antibiotics can cause other serious problems including antibiotic resistance and pollution of the environment. Antibiotic resistance is when harmful microorganisms develop the ability to survive and be viable even after treatment by antibiotics.[19] This situation also causes the development of new modified strains, and thus decreases the effectiveness of the treatment and causes morbidity and clinical complications to increase. Therefore, resistance to the antibiotics is also considered a major issue for human health and environment.[19] At the same time, releasing antibiotics into the environment is another issue and can influence the routine processes of biological and chemical reactions in many parts of the environmental. Therefore, all these issues related antibiotics are another priority for the scientific world.
Understanding human health risks caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) in water environments: Current knowledge and questions to be answered
Published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 2020
Mohan Amarasiri, Daisuke Sano, Satoru Suzuki
Antibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria to resist the effects of an antibiotic which they were previously sensitive. Bacteria become antibiotic resistant by either genetic mutations or by acquiring antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Antibiotic resistant bacterial (ARB) infections have higher mortality and morbidity rates and result in longer hospital stays (Cosgrove, 2006). ARB infections are estimated to cause 10 million deaths worldwide by year 2050 (O'Neill, 2016). Antimicrobial resistance poses a challenge in achieving the universal health coverage and hinder the achievement of sustainable development goals related to health, food security, clean water and sanitation (Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, 2019). In view of these facts, World Health Organization (WHO) published a list of antibiotic resistant priority pathogens. The list consists of 12 bacteria families which are considered to pose greatest threat to the human health (World Health Organization, 2017b). Since the drivers of antimicrobial resistance lie in humans, animals, plants, food and the environment, importance of One Health approach is emphasized in overcoming this threat (Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, 2019).