摘要

       废水 (WW) 已被广泛认为是各种新兴病原体 (EP)、抗生素抗性细菌 (ARB) 和抗生素抗性基因 (ARG) 的主要汇，这些病原体可能会传播并影响更广泛的环境。提高和最大限度地提高污水处理效率以消除这些微生物危害从根本上是必不可少的。尽管采用了多种物理、生物和化学处理技术，但ARG的去除效率仍远不能令人满意。在我们最近完成的 M-ERA.NET 项目中，开发了新型功能化纳米材料，即分子印迹聚合物 (MIP) 薄膜和季铵盐 (QAS) 改性高岭土微粒，并证明对革兰氏阳性菌具有显着的 EP 去除效果。来自 WW 的细菌 (GPB) 和革兰氏阴性菌 (GNB)。作为该项目的延续，我们进一步探索了它们的 ARG 缓解潜力。引人注目的是，通过串联应用 MIP 和 QAS 功能化高岭土微粒，废水处理厂 (WWTP) 中普遍存在的 ARG，例如 blaCTXM、ermB 和 qnrS，可以显着减少 2.7、3.9 和 4.9 log（副本/100 mL），分别，而 sul1、tetO 和 mecA 可以在其检测限以下被消除。就 I 类整合子-整合酶 I (intI1) 而言，一种用于水平基因转移 (HGT) 的移动遗传元件 (MGE)，实现了 4.3 log (copies/100 mL) 减少。总体而言，新型纳米材料在衰减 WW 中的 ARG 方面表现出出色的性能，优于其对照参考。除了已证实的杀菌效果外，这一发现还为将开发的纳米材料应用于 WW 纯化以消除 ARG 提供了额外的好处。

       Wastewater (WW) has been widely recognized as the major sink of a variety of emerging pathogens (EPs), antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), which may disseminate and impact wider environments. Improving and maximizing WW treatment efficiency to remove these microbial hazards is fundamentally imperative. Despite a variety of physical, biological and chemical treatment technologies, the efficiency of ARG removal is still far from satisfactory. Within our recently accomplished M-ERA.NET project, novel functionalized nanomaterials, i.e., molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) films and quaternary ammonium salt (QAS) modified kaolin microparticles, were developed and demonstrated to have significant EP removal effectiveness on both Gram-positive bacteria (GPB) and Gram-negative bacteria (GNB) from WW. As a continuation of this project, we took the further step of exploring their ARG mitigation potential. Strikingly, by applying MIP and QAS functionalized kaolin microparticles in tandem, the ARGs prevalent in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), e.g., blaCTXM, ermB and qnrS, can be drastically reduced by 2.7, 3.9 and 4.9 log (copies/100 mL), respectively, whereas sul1, tetO and mecA can be eliminated below their detection limits. In terms of class I integron-integrase I (intI1), a mobile genetic element (MGE) for horizontal gene transfer (HGT), 4.3 log (copies/100 mL) reduction was achieved. Overall, the novel nanomaterials exhibit outstanding performance on attenuating ARGs in WW, being superior to their control references. This finding provides additional merit to the application of developed nanomaterials for WW purification towards ARG elimination, in addition to the proven bactericidal effect.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/13/10/1593