Nutrient Scarcity Identified as Key Factor in Antibiotic Failure Against Salmonella
New research challenges the long-held belief that antibiotic failure is driven by a small subset of resilient bacteria, highlighting nutrient deprivation as a major cause.
- Researchers from the University of Basel found that nutrient starvation, not hyper-resilient bacterial subsets, is the primary reason for antibiotic failure against Salmonella in mice and tissue models.
- The study, published in Nature, used real-time single-cell analysis to reveal that nearly all Salmonella bacteria survive antibiotic treatment under nutrient-scarce conditions.
- Conventional laboratory tests have been shown to misrepresent bacterial survival, falsely suggesting the existence of a small group of highly resistant persisters.
- Slow bacterial growth due to nutrient deprivation reduces the effectiveness of many antibiotics, which rely on active bacterial processes to kill pathogens.
- The findings suggest a shift in research focus toward understanding bacterial behavior in nutrient-limited environments to develop more effective infection treatments.
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Nature 