Section of Microbiology, Medical Research Council Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom; email:
Annu Rev Microbiol. 2019 Sep 8;73:359-385. doi: 10.1146/annurev-micro-020518-115650.
Persisters are nongrowing, transiently antibiotic-tolerant bacteria within a clonal population of otherwise susceptible cells. Their formation is triggered by environmental cues and involves the main bacterial stress response pathways that allow persisters to survive many harsh conditions, including antibiotic exposure. During infection, bacterial pathogens are exposed to a vast array of stresses in the host and form nongrowing persisters that survive both antibiotics and host immune responses, thereby most likely contributing to the relapse of many infections. While antibiotic persisters have been extensively studied over the last decade, the bulk of the work has focused on how these bacteria survive exposure to drugs in vitro. The ability of persisters to survive their interaction with a host is important yet underinvestigated. In order to tackle the problem of persistence of infections that contribute to the worldwide antibiotic resistance crisis, efforts should be made by scientific communities to understand and merge these two fields of research: antibiotic persisters and host-pathogen interactions. Here we give an overview of the history of the field of antibiotic persistence, report evidence for the importance of persisters in infection, and highlight studies that bridge the two areas.
持留菌是克隆种群中处于非生长状态、短暂对抗生素耐受的细菌。它们的形成是由环境线索触发的，涉及到主要的细菌应激反应途径，使持留菌能够在许多恶劣条件下存活，包括抗生素暴露。在感染过程中，细菌病原体在宿主中暴露于大量压力下，并形成非生长持留菌，这些持留菌能够耐受抗生素和宿主免疫反应，从而很可能导致许多感染的复发。虽然抗生素持留菌在过去十年中得到了广泛的研究，但大部分工作都集中在这些细菌如何在体外耐受药物暴露上。持留菌与宿主相互作用时的存活能力很重要，但研究不足。为了解决导致全球抗生素耐药危机的感染持续存在的问题，科学界应该努力理解和融合这两个研究领域：抗生素持留菌和宿主-病原体相互作用。在这里，我们概述了抗生素持留领域的历史，报告了持留菌在感染中的重要性的证据，并强调了连接这两个领域的研究。
