Microplastics to Promote Antimicrobial Resistance Hot Spot
Mar 12, 2025
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In a recent journal published in the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) journal 『Applied and Environmental Microbiology』, Professor Muhammad Mann of Boston University said he confirmed that microplastics increase antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of bacteria even in the absence of antibiotics through experiments in which E. coli is cultured with microplastics.
The research team pointed out that environmental factors are estimated to play an important role in the increase in antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, and in particular, microplastics are known to form bacterial communities, or 'plastisphere', on the surface. It is argued that microplastics are not just carriers of resistant bacteria but play a hot spot in the evolution of antimicrobial resistance.
The research team made polystyrene, polyethylene, and polypropylene into 10㎛~0.05㎜ microplastics and incubated E. coli together in an enclosed space for 10 days. And four antibiotics, ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, and streptomycin, which are widely used every two days, were used to measure the minimum amount required to kill E. coli to see if there was a change in antimicrobial resistance.
Studies have shown that, regardless of the size and concentration of microplastics, E. coli cultured together in confined spaces increased resistance to all four antibiotics within 5 to 10 days. In addition, it was confirmed that the antimicrobial resistance of such bacteria remained quite strong and stable even after microplastics were removed.
The research team said that the study shows that microplastics alone can promote bacterial antimicrobial resistance, and that microplastic pollution must be urgently addressed.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
