Some antibiotics work by stressing bacteria out (metabolically)
Thursday, October 22, 2015 - 11:10
in Health & Medicine
The innocent days when antibiotics worked reliably and scientists could assume they worked directly—like popping a balloon—are fading. As resistance mounts, understanding how antibiotics really work could be the key to sustaining their efficacy. A new study provides direct evidence that antibiotics sometimes don't kill outright. Rather, they create conditions for bacterial demise by upsetting their metabolism, leading bacteria to a state of oxidative stress that ultimately breaks down their DNA and other key molecules.