Charting a roadmap to stop the spread of antibiotic resistance: study
Monash University and Alfred Health researchers have developed a detailed understanding of how antibiotic resistance is spreading in hospitals, and charted a roadmap to stop the spread.
Published in Nature Communications, the study used new genetic sequencing technology to investigate superbugs resistant to last-line carbapenem antibiotics.
Carbapenems are typically reserved for serious infections, especially those caused by bacteria that are resistant to other antibiotics. Over the last 20 years these bacteria have caused ongoing problems in Australian hospitals.
First author Dr Nenad Macesic, an infectious diseases physician and researcher at The Alfred and Monash University, said the team used a USB-sized genetic sequencing device to identify that bacteria not only spread resistance by replicating but were excellent at passing antibiotic resistance genes between different species.
“We found that they did this by using different vehicles for the resistance genes called plasmids, and the arrival of new plasmids led to outbreaks of new superbugs,” he said.
“Superbugs are an ongoing problem but we now have newer and better tools for detecting and understanding how they spread. This knowledge equips us to improve our prevention efforts and minimise the devastating impact of infections caused by these organisms.
Senior Author Professor Anton Peleg, Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Alfred Health and Monash University’s Central Clinical School, said the data could be used to develop ways to stop the spread.
“This study has given us a highly detailed understanding of how this type of antibiotic resistance is spreading in our hospitals and allowed us to develop a roadmap for how we can stop its spread,” Professor Peleg said.
“These data will be used to detect superbugs early but it also identifies the mechanism of antibiotic resistance, which helps to better target the treatment that we give to the patient.
“Future prevention will require us to integrate new genetic sequencing technologies that allow early detection of novel and potentially hidden antibiotic resistance threats.”
Dr Macesic said these developments were significant as antibiotic resistance was one of the 21st century’s key global health challenges.
“Australia is no exception and we have seen the emergence of bacteria resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics, commonly known as ‘superbugs’, that persist in our hospitals and can cause life-threatening infections,” he said.
“The strength of our work is that we have a dataset that spans 20 years and both clinical and environmental samples. This gives an excellent opportunity for understanding how the situation has evolved over time and how we can work towards future prevention.”
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
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