通過控制營養(yǎng)物可以打開細(xì)菌的防御缺口以利于抗生素發(fā)生作用
（圖片來源：© ISTOCKPHOTO/LINDE STEWART）
生物谷報道：以色列研究人員最近發(fā)表聲明說他們發(fā)明了一種新方法殺滅生命力頑強甚至抗生素不起作用的細(xì)菌。像結(jié)核病的致病菌感染后可在肺中存活十幾年不表現(xiàn)活力,，直到復(fù)蘇后引起感染癥狀,。即使用抗生素抑制住細(xì)菌的生長也不能消除發(fā)病癥狀。
耶路撒冷希伯來大學(xué)的科學(xué)家在PNAS發(fā)表論文稱他們發(fā)現(xiàn)一種徹底殺滅這樣細(xì)菌的方法，通過對鐵鎂等營養(yǎng)元素的限制使細(xì)菌細(xì)胞復(fù)蘇后失去對抗生素的抗性,。這種方法配合抗生素可以殺滅99%的頑固細(xì)菌,。（生物谷編譯）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
PNAS 2008 105: 6145-6149; published online on April 21, 2008, 10.1073/pnas.0711712105
Single-cell protein induction dynamics reveals a period of vulnerability to antibiotics in persister bacteria
Orit Gefen, Chana Gabay, Michael Mumcuoglu, Giora Engel, and Nathalie Q. Balaban*
Racah Institute for Physics and Center for NanoScience and Nanotechnology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
Edited by Susan Gottesman, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, and approved March 5, 2008 (received for review December 12, 2007)
Phenotypic variability in populations of cells has been linked to evolutionary robustness to stressful conditions. A remarkable example of the importance of cell-to-cell variability is found in bacterial persistence, where subpopulations of dormant bacteria, termed persisters, were shown to be responsible for the persistence of the population to antibiotic treatments. Here, we use microfluidic devices to monitor the induction of fluorescent proteins under synthetic promoters and characterize the dormant state of single persister bacteria. Surprisingly, we observe that protein production does take place in supposedly dormant bacteria, over a narrow time window after the exit from stationary phase. Only thereafter does protein production stop, suggesting that differentiation into persisters fully develops over this time window and not during starvation, as previously believed. In effect, we observe that exposure of bacteria to antibiotics during this time window significantly reduces persistence. Our results point to new strategies to fight persistent bacterial infections. The quantitative measurement of single-cell induction presented in this study should shed light on the processes leading to the dormancy of subpopulations in different systems, such as in subpopulations of viable but nonculturable bacteria, or those of quiescent cancer cells.
