Environmental engineering ‘can help combat antibiotic resistance’

Scientists in the US have found a way of preventing the proliferation of antibiotic resistance by adjusting the environment in which bacteria grow.

The team from Houston's Rice University has managed to remove the ability of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa microorganism to resist tetracycline, an antibiotic medication, by denying it access to food and oxygen.

Over 120 generations, the bacteria ceased to pass on the plasmid that allows it to resist the drug due to its need to conserve energy instead, a development that suggests potential remediation strategies for addressing this key public health concern.

For example, anaerobic barriers could be placed at the points where lagoons drain into the environment, thus exerting selective pressure encouraging for the loss of antibiotic-resistant genes.

Rice environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez said: "Our philosophy in environmental engineering is that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of remediation."

This comes after the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill published research last month revealing insights into the molecular methods used by the deadly Staphyloccocus aureus bacteria in passing on resistance from one generation to the next.