Selection of Resistant Bacteria at Very Low Antibiotic Concentrations

Selection of Resistant Bacteria at Very Low Antibiotic Concentrations

The widespread use of antibiotics is selecting for a variety of resistance mechanisms that seriously challenge our ability to treat bacterial infections. Resistant bacteria can be selected at the high concentrations of antibiotics used therapeutically, but what role the much lower antibiotic concentrations present in many environments plays in selection remains largely unclear. Here we show usi...

Selection of antibiotic resistance at very low antibiotic concentrations

Human use of antibiotics has driven the selective enrichment of pathogenic bacteria resistant to clinically used drugs. Traditionally, the selection of resistance has been considered to occur mainly at high, therapeutic levels of antibiotics, but we are now beginning to understand better the importance of selection of resistance at low levels of antibiotics. The concentration of an antibiotic v...

The co-killing of penicillin sensitive and penicillin resistant bacteria at low concentrations of the antibiotic.

There are a number of reports that bacteria which have been made resistant to antibiotics may be rendered normally susceptible by contact with sensitive organisms, with extracts of such organisms, or with culture filtrates. Some of these reports are mutually contradictory in important respects, and the results have not been reproducible regularly by other workers. Voureka (1948) found that when...

Rapid separation of very low concentrations of bacteria from blood.

A rapid and accurate diagnosis of the species and antibiotic resistance of bacteria in septic blood is vital to increase survival rates of patients with bloodstream infections, particularly those with carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections. The extremely low levels in blood (1 to 100CFU/ml) make rapid diagnosis difficult. In this study, very low concentrations of bacteria (6 t...

Impacts of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria