This content is produced by Laval University.
A research team from Laval University studying the presence of antibiotic resistance genes in the air used an ingenious and economical method to obtain samples from all regions of Canada without having to travel. It achieved this by using the cabin filter of 477 automobiles from 51 Canadian locations.
“Car dealerships, municipal fleet managers and people we know across the country have agreed to collect cabin filters from cars, place them in sterile bags and send them to our lab” , explains the project leader, Paul George, professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Bioinformatics at Laval University, and researcher at the Research Center of the University Institute of Cardiology and Pneumology of Quebec-Université Laval .
As their name suggests, these filters are used to purify outside air before it enters the passenger compartment of a car through the ventilation system. Fine particles such as dust, bacteria, microscopic fungi and pollen grains present in the air are captured by these filters. For this reason, it is recommended to change them at least once a year or approximately every 20,000 kilometers. “We asked our network of collaborators to send us these filters when they were replaced,” explains Professor George.
Microorganisms naturally produce compounds – called antibiotics – intended to eliminate their competitors. Certain strains of bacteria have defense mechanisms against these antibiotics. They survive better and the genes that give them this resistance become more common in the environment. These bacteria can also transfer their resistance genes to their congeners or to bacteria of another species, which accelerates the spread of this resistance.
“The widespread use of antibiotics in agriculture and medicine has favored the proliferation of bacterial strains with resistance genes to antibiotics that are used to treat humans or animals,” underlines Professor George. This is an important public health problem, regularly emphasized by the World Health Organization, because this resistance gradually reduces the effectiveness of antibiotics prescribed against infectious diseases in humans.
“This is an important public health problem […] because this resistance gradually reduces the effectiveness of antibiotics prescribed against infectious diseases in humans. »
— Paul George, on the danger posed by the aerial spread of antibiotic resistance genes
Thanks to the analyzes carried out from the bacteria which had accumulated on the cabin filters, Professor George’s team was able to characterize the bacteria present in the air of the six major geographical regions of Canada (British Columbia , Prairies, Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic, Territories) as well as the resistance genes that circulate in these bacterial communities. The results, which have just been published in the journal Environmental DNAshow that each Canadian region has its own signature of resistance genes and which results, in part, from human activities and the local use of certain antibiotics.
“These results suggest that the use of car cabin filters is an effective and cost-effective way to collect air samples to monitor trends in the abundance of resistance genes in each region of the country. With my team, I hope to be able to set up a Canadian network for long-term monitoring of resistance genes present in the air.”
The other signatories of the study published in Environmental DNA are Florent Rossi, Marc Veillette, Amélia Bélanger Cayouette, Samantha Leclerc, Cindy Dumais, Nathalie Turgeon and Caroline Duchaine.
Related News :