Investigation of Antibiotic Resistome in Hospital Wastewater during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is the Initial Phase of the Pandemic Contributing to Antimicrobial Resistance?

Changzhi Wang; David Mantilla-Calderon; Yanghui Xiong; Mohsen Alkahtani; Yasir M. Bashawri; Hamed Al Qarni; Pei Ying Hong

doi:10.1021/acs.est.2c01834

Investigation of Antibiotic Resistome in Hospital Wastewater during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is the Initial Phase of the Pandemic Contributing to Antimicrobial Resistance?

Changzhi Wang, David Mantilla-Calderon, Yanghui Xiong, Mohsen Alkahtani, Yasir M. Bashawri, Hamed Al Qarni, Pei Ying Hong^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

38 Scopus citations

Abstract

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, there has been much speculation about how COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance may be interconnected. In this study, untreated wastewater was sampled from Hospital A designated to treat COVID-19 patients during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside Hospital B that did not receive any COVID-19 patients. Metagenomics was used to determine the relative abundance and mobile potential of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs), prior to determining the correlation of ARGs with time/incidence of COVID-19. Our findings showed that ARGs resistant to macrolides, sulfonamides, and tetracyclines were positively correlated with time in Hospital A but not in Hospital B. Likewise, minor extended spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) and carbapenemases of classes B and D were positively correlated with time, suggesting the selection of rare and/or carbapenem-resistant genes in Hospital A. Non-carbapenemase blaVEB also positively correlated with both time and intI1 and was copresent with other ARGs including carbapenem-resistant genes in 6 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs). This study highlighted concerns related to the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) during the COVID-19 pandemic that may arise from antibiotic use and untreated hospital wastewater.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	15007-15018
Number of pages	12
Journal	Environmental Science and Technology
Volume	56
Issue number	21
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c01834
State	Published - Nov 1 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study is supported by KAUST baseline funding BAS/1/1033-01-01 awarded to P.-Y.H. We thank Mr. Fras Baasher for performing a portion of the solid phase extraction and Mr. Xiang Zhao at the KAUST Bioscience Core Lab for technical assistance in sequencing. The authors are grateful to the KAUST Supercomputing Laboratory (KSL) for the computational resources and technical support provided to complete this study.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Chemical Society.

Keywords

Antibiotic
antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
metagenomics
One-Health
SARS-CoV-2

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
Environmental Chemistry

Access to Document

10.1021/acs.est.2c01834

Cite this

Wang, C., Mantilla-Calderon, D., Xiong, Y., Alkahtani, M., Bashawri, Y. M., Al Qarni, H., & Hong, P. Y. (2022). Investigation of Antibiotic Resistome in Hospital Wastewater during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is the Initial Phase of the Pandemic Contributing to Antimicrobial Resistance? Environmental Science and Technology, 56(21), 15007-15018. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c01834

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title = "Investigation of Antibiotic Resistome in Hospital Wastewater during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is the Initial Phase of the Pandemic Contributing to Antimicrobial Resistance?",

abstract = "Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, there has been much speculation about how COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance may be interconnected. In this study, untreated wastewater was sampled from Hospital A designated to treat COVID-19 patients during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside Hospital B that did not receive any COVID-19 patients. Metagenomics was used to determine the relative abundance and mobile potential of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs), prior to determining the correlation of ARGs with time/incidence of COVID-19. Our findings showed that ARGs resistant to macrolides, sulfonamides, and tetracyclines were positively correlated with time in Hospital A but not in Hospital B. Likewise, minor extended spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) and carbapenemases of classes B and D were positively correlated with time, suggesting the selection of rare and/or carbapenem-resistant genes in Hospital A. Non-carbapenemase blaVEB also positively correlated with both time and intI1 and was copresent with other ARGs including carbapenem-resistant genes in 6 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs). This study highlighted concerns related to the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) during the COVID-19 pandemic that may arise from antibiotic use and untreated hospital wastewater.",

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author = "Changzhi Wang and David Mantilla-Calderon and Yanghui Xiong and Mohsen Alkahtani and Bashawri, {Yasir M.} and {Al Qarni}, Hamed and Hong, {Pei Ying}",

note = "Funding Information: This study is supported by KAUST baseline funding BAS/1/1033-01-01 awarded to P.-Y.H. We thank Mr. Fras Baasher for performing a portion of the solid phase extraction and Mr. Xiang Zhao at the KAUST Bioscience Core Lab for technical assistance in sequencing. The authors are grateful to the KAUST Supercomputing Laboratory (KSL) for the computational resources and technical support provided to complete this study. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 American Chemical Society.",

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Wang, C, Mantilla-Calderon, D, Xiong, Y, Alkahtani, M, Bashawri, YM, Al Qarni, H & Hong, PY 2022, 'Investigation of Antibiotic Resistome in Hospital Wastewater during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is the Initial Phase of the Pandemic Contributing to Antimicrobial Resistance?', Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 56, no. 21, pp. 15007-15018. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c01834

Investigation of Antibiotic Resistome in Hospital Wastewater during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is the Initial Phase of the Pandemic Contributing to Antimicrobial Resistance? / Wang, Changzhi; Mantilla-Calderon, David; Xiong, Yanghui et al.
In: Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 56, No. 21, 01.11.2022, p. 15007-15018.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Investigation of Antibiotic Resistome in Hospital Wastewater during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is the Initial Phase of the Pandemic Contributing to Antimicrobial Resistance?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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