Antimicrobial resistance poses a serious threat to public health and is a growing concern for space exploration missions. Recent studies suggest that microorganisms express higher levels of resistance..
Antimicrobial resistance poses a serious threat to public health and is a growing concern for space exploration missions. Recent studies suggest that microorganisms express higher levels of resistance to antibiotics under microgravity conditions due to the decrease in molecular collisions. Determining the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of antimicrobial agents against microorganisms is an important tool in antimicrobial susceptibility testing and can help clinicians to determine the appropriate dosage and duration of antimicrobial therapy for a given infection. However, the effects of microgravity on MIC remain largely unknown. To address this, a team of researchers used the Kirby Bauer assay to screen the effectiveness of different antibiotics against three bacterial species, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Vibrio fischeri. The assay involved placing filter paper disks containing known concentrations of antibiotics onto a culture of the target bacteria and measuring the diameter of the zone of inhibition around each disk. The results indicated that Tetracycline was the most effective antibiotic to target E. coli, while Chloramphenicol was most effective against V. fischeri and S. epidermidis. The team is now working to establish MIC under Earth's gravity for each species-antibiotic pair to serve as a control and to re-calculate the results for comparison once the pairs are subjected to simulated microgravity using a 2D clinostat. These findings will help inform future research on antimicrobial resistance and space exploration.
