The inoculum effect and band‐pass bacterial response to periodic antibiotic treatment

Abstract The inoculum effect (IE) refers to the decreasing efficacy of an antibiotic with increasing bacterial density. It represents a unique strategy of antibiotic tolerance and it can complicate design of effective antibiotic treatment of bacterial infections. To gain insight into this phenomenon...

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Main Authors: Cheemeng Tan, Robert Phillip Smith, Jaydeep K Srimani, Katherine A Riccione, Sameer Prasada, Meta Kuehn, Lingchong You
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer Nature 2012-10-01
Series:Molecular Systems Biology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2012.49
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author Cheemeng Tan
Robert Phillip Smith
Jaydeep K Srimani
Katherine A Riccione
Sameer Prasada
Meta Kuehn
Lingchong You
author_facet Cheemeng Tan
Robert Phillip Smith
Jaydeep K Srimani
Katherine A Riccione
Sameer Prasada
Meta Kuehn
Lingchong You
author_sort Cheemeng Tan
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The inoculum effect (IE) refers to the decreasing efficacy of an antibiotic with increasing bacterial density. It represents a unique strategy of antibiotic tolerance and it can complicate design of effective antibiotic treatment of bacterial infections. To gain insight into this phenomenon, we have analyzed responses of a lab strain of Escherichia coli to antibiotics that target the ribosome. We show that the IE can be explained by bistable inhibition of bacterial growth. A critical requirement for this bistability is sufficiently fast degradation of ribosomes, which can result from antibiotic‐induced heat‐shock response. Furthermore, antibiotics that elicit the IE can lead to ‘band‐pass’ response of bacterial growth to periodic antibiotic treatment: the treatment efficacy drastically diminishes at intermediate frequencies of treatment. Our proposed mechanism for the IE may be generally applicable to other bacterial species treated with antibiotics targeting the ribosomes.
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publisher Springer Nature
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series Molecular Systems Biology
spelling doaj-art-c268af2f8d35496ba40f6810a52859062025-08-20T04:02:44ZengSpringer NatureMolecular Systems Biology1744-42922012-10-018111110.1038/msb.2012.49The inoculum effect and band‐pass bacterial response to periodic antibiotic treatmentCheemeng Tan0Robert Phillip Smith1Jaydeep K Srimani2Katherine A Riccione3Sameer Prasada4Meta Kuehn5Lingchong You6Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke UniversityDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Duke UniversityDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Duke UniversityDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Duke UniversityDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Duke UniversityDepartment of Biochemistry, Duke University Medical CenterDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Duke UniversityAbstract The inoculum effect (IE) refers to the decreasing efficacy of an antibiotic with increasing bacterial density. It represents a unique strategy of antibiotic tolerance and it can complicate design of effective antibiotic treatment of bacterial infections. To gain insight into this phenomenon, we have analyzed responses of a lab strain of Escherichia coli to antibiotics that target the ribosome. We show that the IE can be explained by bistable inhibition of bacterial growth. A critical requirement for this bistability is sufficiently fast degradation of ribosomes, which can result from antibiotic‐induced heat‐shock response. Furthermore, antibiotics that elicit the IE can lead to ‘band‐pass’ response of bacterial growth to periodic antibiotic treatment: the treatment efficacy drastically diminishes at intermediate frequencies of treatment. Our proposed mechanism for the IE may be generally applicable to other bacterial species treated with antibiotics targeting the ribosomes.https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2012.49antibioticbacteriabistabilityinoculum effect
spellingShingle Cheemeng Tan
Robert Phillip Smith
Jaydeep K Srimani
Katherine A Riccione
Sameer Prasada
Meta Kuehn
Lingchong You
The inoculum effect and band‐pass bacterial response to periodic antibiotic treatment
Molecular Systems Biology
antibiotic
bacteria
bistability
inoculum effect
title The inoculum effect and band‐pass bacterial response to periodic antibiotic treatment
title_full The inoculum effect and band‐pass bacterial response to periodic antibiotic treatment
title_fullStr The inoculum effect and band‐pass bacterial response to periodic antibiotic treatment
title_full_unstemmed The inoculum effect and band‐pass bacterial response to periodic antibiotic treatment
title_short The inoculum effect and band‐pass bacterial response to periodic antibiotic treatment
title_sort inoculum effect and band pass bacterial response to periodic antibiotic treatment
topic antibiotic
bacteria
bistability
inoculum effect
url https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2012.49
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