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Nov 01, 2023Nature Reviews Microbiology (2023)Cite this article
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Antibiotics have transformed medicine, saving millions of lives since they were first used to treat a bacterial infection. However, antibiotics administered to target a specific pathogen can also cause collateral damage to the patient’s resident microbial population. These drugs can suppress the growth of commensal species which provide protection against colonization by foreign pathogens, leading to an increased risk of subsequent infection. At the same time, a patient’s microbiota can harbour potential pathogens and, hence, be a source of infection. Antibiotic-induced selection pressure can cause overgrowth of resistant pathogens pre-existing in the patient’s microbiota, leading to hard-to-treat superinfections. In this Review, we explore our current understanding of how antibiotic therapy can facilitate subsequent infections due to both loss of colonization resistance and overgrowth of resistant microorganisms, and how these processes are often interlinked. We discuss both well-known and currently overlooked examples of antibiotic-associated infections at various body sites from various pathogens. Finally, we describe ongoing and new strategies to overcome the collateral damage caused by antibiotics and to limit the risk of antibiotic-associated infections.
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This research was funded by Wellcome Trust grant 224212/Z/21/Z.
Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Laura de Nies, Carolin M. Kobras & Mathew Stracy
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All authors researched data for the article. L.d.N. and M.S. contributed substantially to discussion of the content. L.d.N. and M.S. wrote the article. All authors reviewed and/or edited the manuscript before submission.
Correspondence to Mathew Stracy.
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de Nies, L., Kobras, C.M. & Stracy, M. Antibiotic-induced collateral damage to the microbiota and associated infections. Nat Rev Microbiol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-023-00936-9
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Accepted: 28 June 2023
Published: 04 August 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-023-00936-9
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