Brauner Asher, Shoresh Noam, Fridman Ofer, Balaban Nathalie Q
The Racah Institute of Physics and the Center for NanoScience and NanoTechnology, Edmond J. Safra Campus, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
Broad Institute of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Biophys J. 2017 Jun 20;112(12):2664-2671. doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2017.05.014.
Antibiotic tolerance and persistence are often associated with treatment failure and relapse, yet are poorly characterized. In distinction from resistance, which is measured using the minimum inhibitory concentration metric, tolerance and persistence values are not currently evaluated in the clinical setting, and so are overlooked when a course of treatment is prescribed. In this article, we introduce a metric and an automated experimental framework for measuring tolerance and persistence. The tolerance metric is the minimum duration for killing 99% of the population, MDK, which can be evaluated by a statistical analysis of measurements performed manually or using a robotic system. We demonstrate the technique on strains of Escherichia coli with various tolerance levels. We hope that this, to our knowledge, new approach will be used, along with the existing minimum inhibitory concentration, as a standard for the in vitro characterization of sensitivity to antimicrobials. Quantification of tolerance and persistence may provide vital information in healthcare, and aid research in the field.
抗生素耐受性和持续性通常与治疗失败及复发相关，但目前对它们的了解甚少。与通过最低抑菌浓度指标衡量的耐药性不同，耐受性和持续性数值目前在临床环境中并未得到评估，因此在开出处方疗程时往往被忽视。在本文中，我们介绍了一种用于测量耐受性和持续性的指标及自动化实验框架。耐受性指标是杀死99%群体所需的最短持续时间，即MDK，它可以通过对人工或使用机器人系统进行的测量结果进行统计分析来评估。我们在具有不同耐受水平的大肠杆菌菌株上展示了该技术。我们希望，据我们所知，这种新方法将与现有的最低抑菌浓度一起，用作体外抗菌敏感性表征的标准。耐受性和持续性的量化可能会在医疗保健中提供重要信息，并有助于该领域的研究。
