Mechanistic analysis of antibiotic and antibiotic resistance gene removal using bionanomaterials

Antibiotics are widely used in healthcare and animal farming. This leads to their continuous release into the environment. The residues induce the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), posing a serious threat to ecological safety.This article provides a systematic review of bio-nanomaterials for antibiotic degradation and ARGs control. Based on their synthesis source, bio-nanoparticles fall into four categories: bacterial, fungal, algal, and plant-derived.In terms of antibiotic degradation, bio-nanomaterials act mainly through adsorption and catalysis. Catalytic degradation is further divided into biocatalysis (which accelerates electron transfer) and chemical catalysis (which produces reactive oxygen species such as hydroxyl radicals). In terms of ARGs control, bionanomaterials reduce selective pressure through antibiotic degradation on the one hand, while directly suppressing ARGs dissemination through multiple mechanisms including physical disruption, chemical oxidation, and biological regulation on the other. Biosynthesized nanoparticles exhibit the dual core value of reducing antibiotics at the source and directly blocking ARGs transmission, representing a key step toward the strategic shift from “killing bacteria” to “controlling genes.”