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Aquatic environments polluted with antibiotics and heavy metals: a human health hazard

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Abstract

Aquatic environments often receive wastewater containing pollutants such as antibiotics and heavy metals from hospital sewage, as well as contaminants from soil. The presence of these pollutants can increase the rate of exchange of resistant genes between environmental and pathogenic bacteria, which can make the treatment of various types of bacterial infections in humans and animals difficult, in addition to causing environmental problems such as ecological risk. In this study, two tetracycline-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (EW32 and EW33), isolated from aquatic environments close to industries and a hospital in southeastern Brazil, were investigated regarding the possible association between tetracycline and heavy metal resistance. The isolate EW32 presented a conjugative plasmid with coresistance to tetracycline and copper, reinforcing the concern that antibiotic resistance by acquisition of plasmids can be induced by the selective pressure of heavy metals in the environment.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) (Grant 2009/16657-3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Análises Clínicas, Toxicológicas e Bromatológicas, Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto, USP, Av. do Café S/N. Monte Alegre, Ribeirão Preto, SP, 14040-903, Brazil

    Vinicius Vicente Martins, Maria Olívia Barboza Zanetti, André Pitondo-Silva & Eliana Guedes Stehling

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  1. Vinicius Vicente Martins
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  2. Maria Olívia Barboza Zanetti
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  3. André Pitondo-Silva
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  4. Eliana Guedes Stehling
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Correspondence to Eliana Guedes Stehling.

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Responsible editor: Hongwen Sun

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Martins, V.V., Zanetti, M.O.B., Pitondo-Silva, A. et al. Aquatic environments polluted with antibiotics and heavy metals: a human health hazard. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 5873–5878 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2509-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2509-4

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