New Insights into Removing Antibiotic Resistance Genes: Environmental Factors, Technical Means, and Molecular Mechanisms

Antibiotic resistance has become a significant challenge around the world, and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have also been recognized as emerging pollutants because of their wide distribution and adverse impacts on human health. Several approaches have been proposed to alleviate ARGs. However, limited knowledge exists on the summary of various strategies and their differences. To resolve these issues, we reviewed the elimination effects of ARGs in different ways and clarified the main molecular mechanisms.

ARGs resistant to tetracyclines (tet) and sulfonamides (sul) have been found in many locations. In addition, various environmental factors, such as temperature, pH, and salinity may influence the removal of ARGs. Various traditional, emerging, and combined approaches have been used to eliminate ARGs, mainly associated with DNA damage, decrease in reactive oxygen species levels, and downregulated expression of ARGs-related function genes.

Collectively, this review systematically summarizes the environmental factors and strategies for ARGs removal. A comparison among these methods is made with a focus on performance and efficiency. Furthermore, we elucidate the main molecular mechanisms to eliminate ARGs. Ultimately, in terms of current studies, several advisable suggestions are proposed for further work.