Antibiotics and the developing infant gut microbiota and resistome

Abstract

The microbial communities colonizing the human gut are tremendously diverse and highly personal. The composition and function of the microbiota play important roles in human health and disease, and considerable research has focused on understanding the ecological forces shaping these communities. While it is clear that factors such as diet, genotype of the host, and environment play important roles in adult gut community composition, recent work has emphasized the importance of early-life assembly dynamics in both the immediate and long-term personalized nature of the gut microbiota. While the mature adult gut microbiota is believed to be relatively stable, the developing infant gut microbiota is highly dynamic and prone to disruption by external factors, including antibiotic exposure. Studies have revealed both transient and persistent alterations to the adult gut microbiota community resulting from antibiotic treatment later in life. As antibiotics are routinely prescribed at a greater rate in the first years of life, the impact of these interventions on the developing infant gut microbiota is emerging as a key research priority. In addition to understanding the impact of these disruptions on the infant gut microbial architecture and related host diseases, we need to understand the contribution of early life antibiotics to the selection of antibiotic resistance gene reservoirs in the microbiota, and their threat to successful treatment of infectious disease. Here we review the current understanding of the developmental progression of the infant gut microbiota and the impact of antibiotic therapies on its encoded reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes.

Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance Genes among Human Gut-Derived Bifidobacteria

“…Accordingly, during the first days following birth, the infants' microbiota may be more sensitive to antibiotic treatment due to a very simple and fragile bifidobacterial community, which appears to be unable to cope with a high level of antibiotic administration. Thus, the particular antibiotic administered to the newborn may bring about an intestinal microbiota disturbance that can prevent or delay subsequent development of a normal microbiota (38).…”

Antibiotic perturbation of the preterm infant gut microbiome and resistome

“…[9][10][11][12][13][14] One of the most common perturbations during this period, antibiotic therapy, 13,15 can substantially alter the gut microbiota and infant physiology. 10,[16][17][18][19][20][21] Because preterm infants are at high risk for infection, antibiotics are the most commonly prescribed medications in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in the United States ( Fig. 1) 15,22,23 accounting for 3 of the top 6 medications with the greatest relative increase in use in NICUs in the United States between 2005 and 2010.…”

Food Additives and Contaminants: Effects on Human Gut Microbiota—A Review

“…Although it was reported that other pharmacological treatment, such as antidiabetic medication, can alter the GM [100], the drugs that primarily play the most significant action on the GM are the antibiotics [71,91,101]. Antibiotic administration, especially in the case of infants [102][103][104][105][106], in whom their use has been related to higher predisposition to infant obesity. The effects of antibiotics on the GM have been investigated actively in recent years, mainly using experimentation animals exposed to various concentrations of antibiotics to evaluate how they affect the microbiota and thus its microbiome.…”

“…Antibiotics are one of the most prescribed drugs in human medicine, particularly in pediatrics and neonatal nursing in developed countries [104,111]. The effect of these drugs on the human GM, both during and after the treatment has been widely investigated in recent years, although it is not yet fully understood [29].…”