Newer high-intensity artificial sweeteners reduce bacterial susceptibility to ampicillin and induce intestinal...

Artificial sweeteners are widely detected in aquatic environments, yet the ecological impacts of newer high-intensity sweeteners remain poorly characterized. Here, we evaluated whether neotame (NTM), alitame (ALT), and advantame (ADM) modulate antibiotic susceptibility and stress responses in Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, and assessed intestinal toxicity in zebrafish. At Codex Alimentarius-benchmarked concentrations, the sweeteners did not inhibit bacterial growth; however, 48 h exposure increased the ampicillin MIC in both species (up to fourfold), whereas glucose produced no comparable change. RNA-seq revealed shared transcriptional responses involving multidrug efflux (acrA/tolC), oxidative stress (soxS), and membrane repair pathways. Consistently, sweetener exposure increased intracellular reactive oxygen species and propidium iodide uptake in a dose-dependent manner. In zebrafish, NTM showed markedly lower tolerance (maximum safe concentration 0.3 mg/L) than ALT and ADM (>2000 mg/L). At 0.3 mg/L, NTM induced intestinal dilation, goblet cell depletion, neutrophil accumulation, elevated pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α: 79.7 ± 8.0 pg/mL vs. 44.0 ± 4.6 pg/mL in control, p < 0.01; IL-6: 28.3 ± 3.5 pg/mL vs. 15.3 ± 5.5 pg/mL, p < 0.05; IL-1β: 75.0 ± 8.9 pg/mL vs. 28.7 ± 7.7 pg/mL, p < 0.01), and epithelial injury resembling TNBS-induced enteritis, whereas ALT and ADM showed no significant effects. Overall, these results indicate that newer high-intensity artificial sweeteners, particularly NTM, can induce bacterial stress-adaptive responses associated with reduced Amp susceptibility and elicit adverse intestinal endpoints in an aquatic vertebrate model, supporting their consideration in environmental hazard evaluation and monitoring.