LONDON - Plastic pollution in the ocean could be a source of novel antibiotics in the future, according to a study that may lead to new ways of tackling drug-resistant superbug infections.
Previous studies estimate that between five million and 13 million tons of plastic pollution could be entering the ocean every year, with about 12 trillion to 125 trillion microplastics floating in the seas.
Scientists have shown that plastic pollution is accumulating in pockets across the Earth’s oceans such as in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Even the frigid polar regions of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic can’t escape the global threat of plastic pollution.
Researchers have also warned that plastic pollutants, ranging from large floating debris to microplastics, could provide the surface area for microbes to grow on and form entire ecosystems.
Some of these microbial ecosystems, they have said, could pose a global health threat by harboring antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
When even the frigid polar regions of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic cannot escape the global threat from unrecycled rubbish, the new research raises a hopeful alternative.
The new research, scheduled to be presented at the American Society for Microbiology’s conference in Washington, DC, held from 9 June to 13 June, found that ocean plastic pollution could be a source for bacteria that produce novel antibiotics against antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
