There are antibiotic-resistant bacteria in Antarctica

Antibiotic resistance, i.e. the phenomenon by which some bacteria manage to escape from antibiotics, has long been a global emergency, involving infections and longer hospital stays and, in the worst cases, deaths that could have been avoided if the drugs had taken effect: a study published in the Lancet last January estimated the deaths caused by antibiotic resistance in 2019 at 1.27 million. The news coming from science is not very encouraging: a new work, recently published in Science of the Total Environment, conducted by a team of scientists from the University of Chile, in fact, has revealed the presence of bacteria with antibiotic-resistant genes in a Antarctica region. The fear, now, is that they may spread across the continent, and then elsewhere.

"We know that the soil of the Antarctic Peninsula, which is one of the regions most affected by global warming in terms of melting ice - explained to Reuters Andres Marcoleta, one of the authors of the work - hosts a great diversity of bacteria. And we found that some of them are a potential source of genes that give them antibiotic resistance. " The scientists' analysis has shown that these "superpowers" are a consequence of the fact that Antarctic bacteria evolved to withstand extreme conditions, and that they are contained in mobile fragments of DNA that can easily transfer to other bacteria.

To find out, Chilean researchers collected several soil samples at regular time intervals, from 2017 to 2019, analyzing the genome of the bacteria present. “We asked ourselves - continues Marcoleta - if climate change could have an impact on infectious diseases. And we found that it is indeed possible that genes linked to antibiotic resistance could spread elsewhere ". The analysis showed, for example, that bacteria belonging to the Pseudomonas genus, one of the most widespread in the Antarctic peninsula, are resistant to the most common disinfectants, such as copper, chlorine and quaternary ammonium. And those belonging to another genus, Polaromonas, "have the potential to inactivate beta-lactam antibiotics, essential for treating many infections." You have to be very careful.