Although abundant evidence has suggested that early-life antibiotic exposure was associated with adipogenesis later in life, limited data were available on the effect of intrauterine antibiotic exposure on infant growth and growth speed. Additionally, few studies have investigated the role of the neonatal gut microbiota in the above association. In this study, we examined the association between intrauterine cumulative antibiotic exposure and infant growth and explored the potential role of the neonatal gut microbiota in the association. 295 mother-child pairs from the Shanghai Maternal-Child Pairs Cohort (MCPC) study were included, and meconium samples and infant growth measurements were assessed. Z-scores of length-for-age, weight-for-age (weight-for-age), and body mass index (BMI)-for-age (BMI-for-age) were calculated. Eighteen common antibiotics were measured in meconium. Multivariable linear regression models were applied to test the interrelationships between antibiotic exposure, diversity indicators, and the relative abundance of selected bacterial taxa from phylum to genus levels from least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and infant growth indicators. The detection rates of the 18 antibiotics, except for chlortetracycline, penicillin, and chloramphenicol, were below 10 %. Penicillin was found to be positively associated with infant growth at birth and with growth speed from 2 to 6 months. The Pielou and Simpson indexes were negatively associated with meconium penicillin. Nominally significant associations between penicillin and the relative abundances of several bacterial taxa from the phyla Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes were found. The Pielou and Simpson indexes were also found to be negatively associated with infant growth. Among taxa selected from LASSO regression, the relative abundances of the phyla Actinobacteria and Firmicutes and order Bifidobacteriales were found to be significantly associated with weight and BMI growth speeds from 2 to 6 months. In conclusion, intrauterine antibiotic exposure can affect infant growth. The neonatal gut microbiota might play a role in the abovementioned association.

Antibiotics are added to agricultural fields worldwide through wastewater irrigation or manure application, resulting in antibiotic contamination and elevated environmental risks to terrestrial environments and humans. Most studies focused on antibiotic detection in different matrices or were conducted in a hydroponic environment. Little is known about the transfer of antibiotics from antibiotic-contaminated irrigation wastewater and animal manure to agricultural soil and edible crops. In this study, we evaluated the transfer of five different antibiotics (tetracycline, sulfamethazine, norfloxacin, erythromycin, and chloramphenicol) to different crops under two levels of antibiotic-contaminated wastewater irrigation and animal manure fertilization. The final distribution of tetracycline (TC), norfloxacin (NOR) and chloramphenicol (CAP) in the crop tissues under these four treatments were as follows: fruit > leaf/shoot > root, while an opposite order was found for sulfamethazine (SMZ) and erythromycin (ERY): root > leaf/shoot > fruit. The growth of crops could accelerate the dissipation of antibiotics by absorption from contaminated soil. A higher accumulation of antibiotics was observed in crop tissues under the wastewater treatment than under manure treatment, which was due to the continual irrigation that increased adsorption in soil and uptake by crops. The translocation of antibiotics in crops mainly depended on their physicochemical properties (e.g. log Kow), crop species, and the concentrations of antibiotics applied to the soil. The levels of antibiotics ingested through the consumption of edible crops under the different treatments were much lower than the acceptable daily intake (ADI) levels.

Antibiotics accumulation in the environment has given rise to multi-drug resistant 'superbugs' and antibiotics resistence genes (ARGs). Chloramphenicol (CAP), a kind of widely used antibiotics, was chosen as the model compound to investigate its degradation during electrochemical treatment process. The prepared Ti/PbO₂–La electrodes had a denser surface and a more complete PbO₂ crystal structure than Ti/PbO₂ electrode. The doping of La increased the onset potential and the overpotential, increased the current value of the oxidation peak and the reduction peak, reduced the impedance, and increased the lifetime. The reactions CAP degradation and TOC removal on Ti/PbO₂–La electrode was both primary kinetic reactions. CAP degradation rate increased with current density, and TOC obtained the highest removal at current density of 25 mA cm⁻². The electrolyte concentration had a small effect in the range of 0.050–0.150 mol L⁻¹. The effects under acidic and neutral conditions were better than under alkaline conditions. CAP was mainly directly oxidized at the electrode surface and indirect oxidation also took place via generated ·OH and SO₄·⁻. 15 intermediates and 2 degradation pathways have been postulated. The entry of CAP and CAP intermediates into the environment caused the alteration in bacterial community and ARGs, while complete degradation products had little effect on them. Redundancy analysis showed that intI1 was the dominant factor affecting ARGs, and Actinobacteria and Patescibacteria were the main factors affecting the abundances of ARGs in the microbial community.

4-nitrobenzaldehyde (4-NBA) is a widely used chemical intermediate for industrial application and an important photodegradation product of chloramphenicol. This compound represents a substantial threat to human health and ecosystem due to its genotoxic and mutagenic effect. In this study, the 4-NBA detoxification by transgenic rice overexpressing a bacterial nitroreductase gene, ElNFS1, from Enterobacter ludwigii were investigated. The cytosol-targeted ElNFS1 transgenic plants were selected to comprehensively examine their physio-biochemical responses and phytoremediation potential to 4-NBA. Our results showed that the transgenic plants exhibited strong tolerance to 4-NBA. Overexpression of ElNFS1 could significantly alleviate 4-NBA-induced damages of photosynthetic apparatus and reactive oxygen species overproduction in transgenic plants. The phytoremediation assay revealed that transgenic plants could remove more 4-NBA from the medium than wild-type plants. HPLC and LC-MS assays showed that 4-aminobenzaldehyde was found in the reductive products of 4-NBA. Altogether, the function of ElNFS1 during 4-NBA detoxification was characterized for the first time, which provides a strong theoretical support for the application potential of ElNFS1 transgenic plants on the phytoremediation of 4-NBA.

Bacillus coagulans is regarded as a clean, safe and helpful probiotic additive in the production of livestock and poultry breeds. Some studies have also shown that Bacillus coagulans can adsorb heavy metals in water, even in the gut of animals. However, whether Bacillus coagulans feeding influences antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) abundance in the gut of lead-exposed laying hens is unknown. To better apply such probiotics in the breeding industry, the present study employed Bacillus coagulans R11 and laying hens in model experiments to test ARG changes in the cecum of laying hens under lead exposure and B. coagulans R11 feeding. The results showed that there was the trend for ARG abundance decreasing in feeding B. coagulans R11 without lead exposure to laying hens in the cecum; however, feeding B. coagulans R11 to laying hens exposed to lead obviously increased the abundances of aminoglycoside and chloramphenicol ARGs. Further experiment found that hydroquinone, dodecanedioic acid, gibberellin A14, alpha-solanine, jasmonic acid and chitin were involved in the abundances of ARGs in the cecum, in addition the abundances of these compounds were also significantly enhanced by lead exposure or combination effects of lead and B. coagulans R11. As a result, the ARG hazards increased with feeding B. coagulans R11 to laying hens exposed to lead, and the key compounds which influenced by the combination effects of lead and B. coagulans R11 might influence the ARGs abundance.

Large amounts of antibiotics/disinfectants are used in the farming of ornamental fish so as to prevent and treat bacterial infection. This may exert considerable selection pressures on the prevalence and propagation of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). However, the levels of ARGs and their potential prevalence mechanism in the wastewater of the ornamental fish industry remains unclear. In this work, wastewater is collected from a representative ornamental fish market (OFM) that is located at the northern China to study the occurrence and abundance of 21 ARGs and 2 integrase genes. Results indicated that 15 different ARGs and 2 integrase genes are existent and prevalent in the wastewater of OFM, whereby concentrations range from 2.01 to 10.34 copies/L. Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia, and Firmicutes are the predominant phyla in the wastewater samples. 17 species of human opportunistic pathogens are present with relative abundance of up to 0.01%, which suggests a considerable risk of pathogens acquiring and disseminating ARGs. Moreover, oxytetracycline, ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, sulfadiazine, and chloramphenicol are most frequently detected in wastewater, with concentrations of up to 1150, 877, 514, 1970, and 1700 ng/L, respectively. Notably, good correlations have been determined among ARGs and antibiotics, non-antibiotic environmental factors in wastewater of OFM. This current study reveals, for the first time, that OFM is a previously unperceived reservoir for ARG prevalence in aquatic environment and water environmental factors (particularly antibiotics), and their induced shifts in the microbial communities are the key factors for distribution of ARGs in OFM.

Antibiotic resistance (AR) in the environment is a growing and global concern for public health, and intrinsic AR from pristine sites untouched by pharmaceutical antibiotics is not commonly studied. Forty aerobic bacteria were isolated from water and sediment samples of hot springs in South Africa. Resistance against ten antibiotics (carbenicillin, gentamicin, kanamycin, streptomycin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, ceftriaxone, co-trimoxazole, nalidixic acid and norfloxacin) was tested using a standard disk diffusion assay. Resistance to one or two antibiotics were equally found in 37.5%, while the remaining 22% showed complete sensitivity. Intermediate resistance was found for ceftriaxone (52.5%), nalidixic acid (37.5%) and carbenicillin (22.5%), while low levels of resistance were observed for streptomycin (5%) and kanamycin (2.5%), and total sensitivity towards the other antibiotics. Twenty-nine isolates were also tested against eight different heavy-metal salts (Al, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni and Pb) at 10 and 40 mM. All isolates were tolerant and able to grow on ≥2 heavy-metal salts at both concentrations. No association was observed between AR and heavy metal tolerance (HMT). Based on the relatively low AR levels, hot spring sites are pristine environments reflecting baseline levels for comparison to other potentially contaminated groundwater sites.

Pharmaceuticals and analogs of bisphenol A (BPA) are increasingly threatening environmental pollutants. In this study, mixtures of selected pharmaceuticals (diclofenac sodium salt, chloramphenicol, oxytetracycline hydrochloride, fluoxetine hydrochloride, estrone, ketoprofen, progesterone, gemfibrozil and androstenedione) were prepared with BPA and its two analogs (namely, bisphenols F and S) at such ratios to reflect environmentally detectable levels. Then, the mixture solutions were studied with a XenoScreen YES/YAS assay to determine the variations in the initial hormonal response of each pharmaceutical compound due to the presence of a bisphenol analog. The results obtained were modeled with the concentration addition (CA) and independent action (IA) approaches, the trueness of which was studied with model deviation ratios (MDR). The estrogenic agonistic activity of the drugs studied was most strongly affected by the presence of BPA in solution (twenty-one cases of synergy observed for CA models versus twelve cases of antagonism in the case of IA predictions). BPS shows a strong agonistic estrogenic impact on most of the drugs studied at medium and high concentration levels; androgenic agonistic activity was also impaired with elevated concentrations of BPS. Increasing the concentration of BPF in a reaction mixture also increased the number of YES + synergism incidences (for CA modeling). Estrone, progesterone and androstenedione were mostly affected by the highest BPF concentrations studied in the case of androgenic agonistic research performed.

Assessment of the impact of pharmaceutical residues on living organisms is a very complex subject. Apart from taking into account the toxicity of individual compounds, environmental factors should also be taken into account. In this paper, attempts were made to assess the impact of coexisting inorganic ions and changes in pH on the toxicity of ten selected pharmaceuticals. Two bioassays were used to measure the estrogenic and androgenic effects (XenoScreen YES/YAS – Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and acute toxicity (Microtox® – Vibrio fischeri).The Microtox® test gave the most definitive outputs concerning the determination of interaction type between drugs and chemical species. Synergism was proven for almost all drugs and chemical species, and only two cases of antagonism were found. Significant drug/pH interactions were rare.Regarding the XenoScreen YES/YAS bioassay, when estrogenic and androgenic agonistic effects (YES+ and YAS+, respectively) were studied, many cases of well-expressed synergism for all inorganic ions with limited number of drugs (diazepam, fluoxetine, estrone, chloramphenicol for the YES+ test and diazepam, progesterone, androstenedione, and estrone for the YAS+ test) were found. Antagonism was also proven for the YES+ test, especially for diclofenac and androstenedione interacting with cations. On the other hand, the YES- and YAS- tests (estrogenic and androgenic, respectively, antagonistic effects) did not indicate cases of synergetic interaction except for the couples Br−/diazepam and NH4+/ketoprofen. Antagonistic drug/ion interactions were detected only with diclofenac and fluoxetine. It is interesting that well-expressed (antagonism or synergism) drug/pH interactions were rare.Both tests were found utilizable in performing studies on impact of ions/pH fluctuations on drugs mixtures' toxicity confirming in most cases synergic impact of parameters studied on toxicity. The approach proposed in the paper seems to be proven as a reliable tool in assessing impact of abiotic factors on toxicity and endocrine potential of complex mixtures of pharmaceuticals' mixtures.

The combination of emerging antibiotic resistance and lack of discovery of new antibiotic classes poses a threat to future human welfare. Antibiotics are administered to livestock at a large scale and these may enter the environment by the spreading of manure on agricultural fields. They may leach to groundwater, especially in the Netherlands which has some of the most intensive livestock farming and corresponding excessive manure spreading in the world. This study investigates the presence of antibiotics in groundwater in two regions with the most intensive livestock farming in the Netherlands. If so, the hydrochemical conditions were further elaborated. Ten multi-level wells with in total 46 filters were sampled, focusing on relatively young, previously age-dated groundwater below agricultural fields. Twenty-two antibiotics were analyzed belonging to the following antibiotic groups: tetracyclines, sulfonamides, trimethoprims, β-lactams, macrolides, lincosamides, quinolones, nitrofurans and chloramphenicol. The samples were analyzed for these antibiotics by LC-MS/MS ESI-POS/NEG (MRM) preceded by solid phase extraction which resulted in importantly low detection limits. Six antibiotics were found above detection limits in 31 filters in seven wells: sulfamethazine, sulfamethoxazole, lincomycin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, and sulfadiazine. The concentrations range from 0.3 to 18 ng L−1. Sulfonamides were detected at all measured depths down to 23 meters below surface level with apparent groundwater ages up to 40 years old. No antibiotics were detected below the nitrate/iron redox cline, which suggests that the antibiotics might undergo degradation or attenuation under nitrate-reducing redox conditions. This study provides proof that antibiotics are present in groundwater below agricultural areas in the Netherlands due to the spreading of animal manure.