Research Progress on Heavy Metals as Regulators of Bacterial Virulence in a

Yiying Zhang, Xuanheng Tai, Kelan Wang, Ying Zhao, Xin Zhao, Wei Zou

Abstract readReview

In one paragraph

Review in Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Yiying ZhangYunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Public Health and Biosafety, School of Public Health, Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650500, China.ORCID 0009-0007-4268-960X

Xuanheng TaiYunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Public Health and Biosafety, School of Public Health, Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650500, China.

Kelan WangYunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Public Health and Biosafety, School of Public Health, Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650500, China.

Ying ZhaoYunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Public Health and Biosafety, School of Public Health, Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650500, China.

Xin ZhaoYunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Public Health and Biosafety, School of Public Health, Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650500, China.ORCID 0009-0001-7565-7782

Wei ZouYunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Public Health and Biosafety, School of Public Health, Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650500, China.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China 32560306

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Heavy metal pollution is increasingly recognized, not merely as a source of static toxicity, but also as a driver of dynamic microbial regulation. At sublethal concentrations, these pollutants function as critical environmental cues that reshape microbial evolutionary trajectories. This review elucidates how low-dose heavy metals bypass acute cellular damage to instead engage bacterial chemical-sensing networks, systematically upregulating virulence factors, biofilm architecture, and the co-selection of antibiotic resistance. By leveraging the

Indexed as

BacteriaBacterial InfectionsCaenorhabditis elegansMetals, HeavyAnimalsDisease Models, AnimalHost-Pathogen InteractionsImmunity, InnateVirulenceMetals, Heavybacterial virulenceCaenorhabditis elegansenvironmental signalingheavy metalshost–pathogen interactionsrisk assessment

Identifiers

PMID41901778

DOI10.3390/pathogens15030325

PMCPMC13029013

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.