Alternating antibiotics render resistant bacteria beatable.

Lauren Richardson

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002105

Abstract

Alternating antibiotics render resistant bacteria beatable.

Highlights

In the study presented here, published in PLOS Biology, Ayari Fuentes-Hernandez, Jessica Plucain, Fabio Gori, Robert Beardmore, and colleagues demonstrate that two antibiotics known to act synergistically can be used in a specially designed sequential treatment to kill bacteria at dosages that, when the drugs are administered alone or in combination, cause rapid development of drug resistance and sustained bacterial growth
The combination therapy resulted in the greatest single-season inhibition, but, by the end of the experiment, the cell densities rebounded, consistent with drug resistance
The authors used whole-genome sequencing to determine genetic changes occurring during monotherapy versus sequential treatments and found that both treatments promoted the amplification of the multidrug efflux pump gene, as well as other known drug-resistance mutations

Summary

Introduction

In the study presented here, published in PLOS Biology, Ayari Fuentes-Hernandez, Jessica Plucain, Fabio Gori, Robert Beardmore, and colleagues demonstrate that two antibiotics known to act synergistically can be used in a specially designed sequential treatment to kill bacteria at dosages that, when the drugs are administered alone or in combination, cause rapid development of drug resistance and sustained bacterial growth. To help mimic more challenging clinical scenarios, the bacteria used in the in vitro model of infection contained a gene that encodes a multidrug efflux pump, the genomic amplification of which results in increased drug resistance to both drugs.

Results

Conclusion