Antibiotic efficacy is linked to bacterial cellular respiration.

ABSTRACT: Bacteriostatic and bactericidal antibiotic treatments result in two fundamentally different phenotypic outcomes--the inhibition of bacterial growth or, alternatively, cell death. Most antibiotics inhibit processes that are major consumers of cellular energy output, suggesting that antibiotic treatment may have important downstream consequences on bacterial metabolism. We hypothesized that the specific metabolic effects of bacteriostatic and bactericidal antibiotics contribute to their overall efficacy. We leveraged the opposing phenotypes of bacteriostatic and bactericidal drugs in combination to investigate their activity. Growth inhibition from bacteriostatic antibiotics was associated with suppressed cellular respiration whereas cell death from most bactericidal antibiotics was associat

SUBMITTER: Lobritz MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4500273 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature