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Anti-infectives

Antibiotics and death — the Fenton connection

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 5, page 829 (2007)Cite this article

Antibiotics can be classified as either bactericidal (those that kill cells) or bacteriostatic (those that prevent cell division). James Collins and colleagues previously showed that the treatment of Escherichia coli with a quinolone antibiotic induces the cell to generate reactive oxygen species that contribute to cell death. The reactive oxygen species superoxide can be dismutated to form hydrogen peroxide, which is converted into hydroxyl radicals using the Fe2+-dependent Fenton reaction. Hydroxyl-radical species damage proteins, lipids and DNA, resulting in cell death. In this paper, Kohanski and colleagues investigated whether a selection of bactericidal and bacteriostatic antibiotics induce the formation of toxic hydroxyl radicals.

Using a hydroxyl-radical-sensitive fluorescent dye, the researchers showed that treatment with lethal doses of bactericidal, but not bacteriostatic, antibiotics induced hydroxyl-radical formation in both Gram-negative (E. coli) and Gram-positive ( Staphylococcus aureus ) bacteria. Blocking the production of hydroxyl radicals by treatment with an iron chelator, or quenching hydroxyl radicals with thiourea, increased the survival of antibiotic-treated bacteria.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Kohanski, M. A., Dwyer, D. J., Hayete, B., Lawrence, C. A. & Collins, J. J. A common mechanism of cellular death induced by bactericidal antibiotics. Cell 130, 797–810 (2007)

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  1. Susan Jones
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Jones, S. Antibiotics and death — the Fenton connection. Nat Rev Microbiol 5, 829 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1783

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1783

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