Using a sequential regimen to eliminate bacteria at sublethal antibiotic dosages.

ABSTRACT: We need to find ways of enhancing the potency of existing antibiotics, and, with this in mind, we begin with an unusual question: how low can antibiotic dosages be and yet bacterial clearance still be observed? Seeking to optimise the simultaneous use of two antibiotics, we use the minimal dose at which clearance is observed in an in vitro experimental model of antibiotic treatment as a criterion to distinguish the best and worst treatments of a bacterium, Escherichia coli. Our aim is to compare a combination treatment consisting of two synergistic antibiotics to so-called sequential treatments in which the choice of antibiotic to administer can change with each round of treatment. Using mathematical predictions validated by the E. coli treatment model, we show that clearance of the bacter

SUBMITTER: Fuentes-Hernandez A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4390231 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature