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'Superbug gene' found in one of the most remote places on Earth

Soil samples taken in the Kongsfjorden region of Svalbard have now confirmed the spread of blaNDM-1 into the High Arctic -- an ARG [antibiotic-resistant genes] originally found in Indian clinical settings, which conditionally provides multidrug resistance (MDR) in microorganisms.

Worldwide spread of blaNDM-1 and other MDR genes is a growing concern because they often target "last resort" classes of antibiotics, including Carbapenems.

Carried in the gut of animals and people, the research team, led by Newcastle University's Professor David Graham, say that blaNDM-1 and other medically-important ARGs were found in Arctic soils that were likely spread in the faecal matter of birds, other wildlife and human visitors to the area.

"Polar regions are among the last presumed pristine ecosystems on Earth, providing a platform for characterizing pre-antibiotic era background resistance against which we could understand rates of progression of AR 'pollution'," says Professor Graham, an environmental engineer at Newcastle University who has spent 15 years studying the environmental transmission of antibiotic resistance around the world.

"But less than three years after the first detection of the blaNDM-1 gene in the surface waters of urban India we are finding them thousands of miles away in an area where there has been minimal human impact. "Encroachment into areas like the Arctic reinforces how rapid and far-reaching the spread of antibiotic resistance has become, confirming solutions to AR must be viewed in global rather than just local terms."

[...] Published today in the academic journal Environmental International, this latest research was carried out by an international team of experts from the Universities of Newcastle, York and Kansas and the Chinese Academy of Science in Xiamen, and was funded by the UK Natural Environmental Research Council and other agencies.

Analysing the extracted DNA from forty soil cores at eight locations along Kongsfjorden, a total of 131 ARGs were detected.

"The resistance genes detected were associated with nine major antibiotic classes, including aminoglycosides, macrolides and β-lactams, which are used to treat many infections. As an example, a gene that confers MDR in Tuberculosis was found in all cores, whereas blaNDM-1 was detected in more than 60% of the soil cores in the study.

"This finding has huge implications for global AR spread," warns Graham. "A clinically important ARG originating from South Asia is clearly not 'local' to the Arctic."

Journal Reference:
Clare McCann, Beate Christgen, Jennifer Roberts, Jian-Qiang Su, Kathryn Arnold, Neil Gray, Yong-Guan Zhu and David Graham. Understanding drivers of antibiotic resistance genes in High Arctic soil ecosystems. Environment International, 2019

Original Submission