Copper and nanostructured anatase rutile and carbon coatings induce adaptive antibiotic resistance

• Published in: AMB Express Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 117 - 10
• Main Authors: Wasa, Alibe, Aitken, Jack, Jun, Hyunwoo, Bishop, Catherine, Krumdieck, Susan, Godsoe, William, Heinemann, Jack A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 07.09.2022; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Anatase; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Antiinfectives and antibacterials; Antimicrobial activity; Antimicrobial agents; Antimicrobial coatings; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Carbon; Coatings; Copper; Drug resistance; E coli; Efflux; Escherichia coli; Exposure; Fluorescence; Infectious diseases; Kanamycin; Life Sciences; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Microorganisms; Nanostructure; Original; Original Article; Phenotypes; Rutile; Stainless steel; Stainless steels; Staphylococcus aureus; Strains (organisms); TiO2; Titanium dioxide; Antimicrobial coatings; TiO; Copper; Antibiotic resistance
• ISSN: 2191-0855; 2191-0855
• DOI: 10.1186/s13568-022-01457-z

Contaminated surfaces are vehicles for the spread of infectious disease-causing microorganisms. A strategy to prevent their spread is applying antimicrobial coatings to surfaces. Both nanostructured anatase rutile and carbon (NsARC), a TiO 2 formulation, and copper are examples of antimicrobial agents that are used in making or coating door handles and similar surfaces, to reduce microbial loads. Antimicrobial surfaces have been extensively tested for antimicrobial activity but not sublethal effects, such as exposure-associated multiple antibiotic resistance phenotypes usually caused by induction of efflux pump genes. The possibility of NsARC and copper inducing indicative efflux pump pathways was investigated by monitoring the expression of mScarlet fluorescent protein (FP) in two reporter strains of Escherichia coli. There was an increase in the expression of FP in the reporter strains exposed to NsARC and copper relative to the inert control composed of stainless steel. Furthermore we tested E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus following 8 h of exposure to NsARC for changes in resistance to selected antibiotics. E. coli that were exposed to NsARC became more susceptible to kanamycin but there was no significant change in susceptibility of S . aureus to any tested antibiotics. These findings suggests that even though NsARC and copper are antimicrobial, they also have some potential to cause unintended phenotypes. Keypoints New antimicrobial material NsARC based on TiO 2 compared to copper. Both NsARC and copper induce efflux pump gene transcription. Species-specific changes in antibiotic resistance from exposure to antimicrobial surface coatings.