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Waddington C, Carey ME, Boinett CJ, Higginson E, Veeraraghavan B, Baker S. Exploiting genomics to mitigate the public health impact of antimicrobial resistance. Genome Med 2022; 14:15. [PMID: 35172877 PMCID: PMC8849018 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-022-01020-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major global public health threat, which has been largely driven by the excessive use of antimicrobials. Control measures are urgently needed to slow the trajectory of AMR but are hampered by an incomplete understanding of the interplay between pathogens, AMR encoding genes, and mobile genetic elements at a microbial level. These factors, combined with the human, animal, and environmental interactions that underlie AMR dissemination at a population level, make for a highly complex landscape. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and, more recently, metagenomic analyses have greatly enhanced our understanding of these processes, and these approaches are informing mitigation strategies for how we better understand and control AMR. This review explores how WGS techniques have advanced global, national, and local AMR surveillance, and how this improved understanding is being applied to inform solutions, such as novel diagnostic methods that allow antimicrobial use to be optimised and vaccination strategies for better controlling AMR. We highlight some future opportunities for AMR control informed by genomic sequencing, along with the remaining challenges that must be overcome to fully realise the potential of WGS approaches for international AMR control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire Waddington
- Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0AW, UK.,Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK
| | - Megan E Carey
- Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0AW, UK.,Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK
| | | | - Ellen Higginson
- Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0AW, UK.,Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK
| | - Balaji Veeraraghavan
- Department of Microbiology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Stephen Baker
- Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0AW, UK. .,Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
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