Acta Chimica Slovaca (ACS) publishes papers on fundamental and applied aspects of chemistry, biochemistry, chemical technology, chemical engineering and process control, biotechnology and food technology. Welcome are also topics which include chemical aspects of materials, physical chemistry and chemical physics, analytical chemistry, macromolecular chemistry and biomedical engineering.

Comparison of gut resistomes in healthy individuals and patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis

Klára Cverenkárová *, Petra Olejníková a, Katarína Šoltys b, Lucia Messingerová c, Ľubomír Skladaný d, Lucia Bírošová

Department of Nutrition and Food Quality Assessment, Institute of Food Science and Nutrition, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, 81237 Bratislava, Slovakia
a Institute of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, 81237 Bratislava, Slovakia
b Department of Microbiology and Virology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava 4, Slovakia
c Institute of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, 81237 Bratislava, Slovakia
d HEGITO (Div Hepatology, Gastroenterology and Liver Transplantation), Dept Internal Medicine 2 of the Slovak Medical University, F.D. Roosevelt University Hospital of Banská Bystrica, Námestie L. Svobodu 1, 97401 Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

E-mail: * klara.cverenkarova@stuba.sk

Abstract: The human gut microbiota is in the centre of scientific interest for a long period of time. The overall health status of the individual has a great impact on the composition of gut microbiota, however gut microbiota can affect the human’s health. Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are often a part of human gut microbiome. In this paper, total genomic DNA was extracted from the stool samples of 147 healthy individuals and 45 stool samples from patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis. Presence of 6 common ARGs (blaTEM, blaSHV, blaOXA, vanA, tet(A), tet(E)) was analysed in the genomic DNA by end-point PCR. The results show significantly higher occurrence of ARGs in the DNA samples from patients (p = 0.0001). The samples from patients contained multiple ARGs significantly more often than from the healthy individuals (p = 0.00003). Antibiotic treatment in patients strongly correlated with occurrence of ARGs (p = 0.0038). The nutrition and sex of the healthy individuals did not have significant effect on the occurrence of ARGs (p = 0.156; p = 0.456). The ARGs occurrence in healthy individuals was the highest by the oldest age group, but the age of individuals and ARGs occurrence were not related (p = 0.617). In conclusion, the results underline the importance of health for the normal functioning of gut microbiota. Antibiotic resistance represents a challenge in the treatment of patients with liver diseases.

Keywords: alcoholic hepatitis, antibiotic resistance, gut, microbiome, resistomer

Acta Chimica Slovaca, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2023, pp. 109—121, DOI: 10.2478/acs-2023-0011