Antibiotic resistance poses a major threat to public health. It is estimated that antibiotic-resistant infections will cause millions of death with an economy loss of $100 trillion by 2050 if current trends continue. Antibiotic resistance that evolved from mutations could be transferred from environmental bacteria to human pathogens through a process known as horizontal gene transfer.

Overuse and misuse of antibiotics are generally recognised as the key factors contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance. However, whether non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals and personal care products can mediate the spread of antibiotic resistance via mutation and/or horizontal gene transfer is unclear.
This project aims to investigate:
1.    Whether the exposure to non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals and personal care products can directly induce antibiotic resistance via mutagenesis.
2.    Could widely-used non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals and personal care products stimulate the horizontal transfer of antibiotic multi-resistance genes via conjugative gene transfer within and across bacterial genera.
3.    The effects of non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals and personal care products on the horizontal transfer of antibiotic multi-resistance genes via transformation.

Project Outcomes

We for the first time discovered that the pharmaceuticals and personal care products that we use daily are accelerating the spread of antibiotic resistance in environments.
More specifically, we found that:
1.    Antidepressant fluoxetine and toothpaste ingredient triclosan can induce mutations in Escherichia coli that convert mutant’s resistance against multiple antibiotics.
2.    Non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals carbamazepine and triclosan can significantly promote the conjugative transfer of antibiotic resistance genes within and across bacteria genera.
3.    Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, a lipid-lowering drug, a β-blocker and triclosan significantly promoted the uptake of antibiotic resistance genes via bacterial transformation.


Media releases

Our findings have been published in international scientific journals, which have attracted media coverage by more than 80 different press releases, including ABC News, The Daily Mail, Science Daily, The Courier-Mail and a television interview from 7 News channel.

Award 

As a recognition of his achievements, Dr Lu has been awarded with the 2019 QLD Student Water Price by the Australian Water Association.