Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance thwarts the treatment of infectious diseases leading to high rate of mortality worldwide. The heightened use/misuse of antimicrobials has worsened the situation by selection and dissemination of resistant isolates and in turn resistance determinants. Extended-spectrum �²-lactamases (ESBLs) turn out to be a helping hand that impedes the treatment of infections caused by Enterobacteriaceae. Polluted water environments are hotspot for the acquisition and dissemination of resistance genes where exchange of genetic elements (i.e., plasmids, transposons and integrons) between distant related bacteria occurs. The present study was performed to access the antibiotic resistance pattern among the inhabitant bacterial isolates of Delhi stretch of river Yamuna and also to determine the prevalence of ESBL genes among isolates conferring resistance. Out of 231 isolates obtained from ten different sites receiving domestic and industrial sewage, 118 were resistant to cefotaxime. 68 isolates positive for ESBL production via PDCT were also found to confer resistance towards other antibiotics with different mode of action. High level resistance to ertapenem left carbapenems in vein that are widely regarded as the drugs of choice for treatment of severe infections caused by ESBL producing Enterobacteriaceae. When accessed for ESBL genes these isolates marked the presence of blaTEM, blaSHV and blaCTX-M individually and in combinations. The identification of highly resistant ESBLs-producing bacteria in polluted river water raises alarming concern to the increasing resistance that would lead humanity in a situation worse than pre-antibiotic era, hence, putting forth an urgent need to devise strategies for preventing emergence and dissemination of resistance.

Biography

Email: kehkashansiddiqui7@gmail.com