AI Article Synopsis
- Alcohol-based disinfectants, especially hand rubs, are crucial for controlling hospital infections, but there's an increasing number of infections caused by alcohol-tolerant pathogens.
- A study found that hospital isolates of these pathogens became 10 times more resistant to alcohol after 2010, making traditional disinfection methods less effective.
- Genetic analyses revealed mutations in the bacteria that help them better absorb and metabolize carbohydrates, indicating that their adaptation poses new challenges for infection control in hospitals.*
Article Abstract
Alcohol-based disinfectants and particularly hand rubs are a key way to control hospital infections worldwide. Such disinfectants restrict transmission of pathogens, such as multidrug-resistant and Despite this success, health care infections caused by are increasing. We tested alcohol tolerance of 139 hospital isolates of obtained between 1997 and 2015 and found that isolates after 2010 were 10-fold more tolerant to killing by alcohol than were older isolates. Using a mouse gut colonization model of transmission, we showed that alcohol-tolerant resisted standard 70% isopropanol surface disinfection, resulting in greater mouse gut colonization compared to alcohol-sensitive We next looked for bacterial genomic signatures of adaptation. Alcohol-tolerant accumulated mutations in genes involved in carbohydrate uptake and metabolism. Mutagenesis confirmed the roles of these genes in the tolerance of to isopropanol. These findings suggest that bacterial adaptation is complicating infection control recommendations, necessitating additional procedures to prevent from spreading in hospital settings.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aar6115 | DOI Listing |
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