Isolation, identification, and characterization of resistant bacteria to antibiotics from pharmaceutical effluent and study of their antibiotic resistance

Md Shahin Mahmud; Md Aoulad Hosen; Md Ishaq Hossion; Md Shiblee Sadik Sabuj; Nazmi Ara Rumi; Md Khaled Hossain; Musaab Dauelbait; Hiba-Allah Nafidi; Turki M Dawoud; Muhammad Ibrahim; Mohammed Bourhia

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1307291

Isolation, identification, and characterization of resistant bacteria to antibiotics from pharmaceutical effluent and study of their antibiotic resistance

Front Microbiol. 2023 Dec 27:14:1307291. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1307291. eCollection 2023.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Science, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, Bangladesh.
² Department of Scientific Translation, Faculty of Translation, University of Bahri, Khartoum, Sudan.
³ Department of Food Science, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Laval University, Quebec City, QC, Canada.
⁴ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal Campus, Sahiwal, Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ibn Zohr University, Laayoune, Morocco.

Abstract

Pharmaceutical effluents primarily enter aquatic environments through the discharge of treated and untreated wastewater from various sources, including hospitals, pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, and households. Microbes sourced from pharmaceutical effluents such as Pseudomonas spp. pose a significant public health concern because of their high levels of resistance to multiple drugs and extreme multidrug resistance. Therefore, the present study was conducted for the isolation, identification, and molecular characterization of selected isolates from pharmaceutical effluents and also determined their antibiotic sensitivity patterns. From June 2016 to March 2017, a study was conducted on four well-known pharmaceutical companies specializing in antibiotic production in Dhaka and Gazipur. Four wastewater samples were collected from various origins and then brought to the Bacteriology laboratory for microbiological examination. Twelve pure isolates were obtained and characterized through cultural and biochemical tests while molecular identification of Pseudomonas spp. was performed using the 16S rRNA gene sequence. Twelve commercially available antibiotics were used for antibiotic sensitivity tests using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion methods. We isolated the most predominant isolates, Pseudomonas aeruginosa (41.67%), followed by Bacillus spp. (33.33%) and Staphylococcus spp. (25%) respectively. Among 12 antibiotics, ciprofloxacin is 100% sensitive against P. aeruginosa, while the remaining 11 antibiotics are 100% resistant. Bacillus spp. showed 100% resistance to all antibiotics while 50% sensitive to vancomycin and 100% to chloramphenicol, respectively. Staphylococcus spp. was 100% resistant to all antibiotics. Our research suggested that P. aeruginosa is the reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes and spreads disease to humans from the environment. The findings of this study, i.e., the isolation, identification, and characterization of antibiotic-resistant bacteria from pharmaceutical effluent have highlighted, comprehended, and mitigated the dissemination of antibiotic resistance and opportunistic bacteria.

Keywords: Pseudomonas spp.; antibiotics; bacteria; drug-resistant; isolation.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors extend their appreciation to the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP2023R197), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.