Studying Antibiotic Persistence During Infection

Charlotte Michaux; Séverin Ronneau; Sophie Helaine

doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-1621-5_18

Studying Antibiotic Persistence During Infection

Methods Mol Biol. 2021:2357:273-289. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1621-5_18.

Authors

Charlotte Michaux^{1

2}, Séverin Ronneau^{1

2}, Sophie Helaine^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Section of Microbiology, Medical Research Council Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection, Imperial College London, London, UK.
² Department of Microbiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Section of Microbiology, Medical Research Council Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection, Imperial College London, London, UK. sophie_helaine@hms.harvard.edu.
⁴ Department of Microbiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. sophie_helaine@hms.harvard.edu.

PMID: 34590265
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1621-5_18

Abstract

This chapter contains the latest version of essential protocols established to study Salmonella persisters during macrophage infection . These methods, which can be applied to other pathogens, allow researchers to quantify, visualize, and characterize bacterial persisters within a population and within immune cells consistent with the recent consensus statement published by the research community working on antibiotic persistence (Balaban et al, Nat Rev Microbiol 17:441-448, 2019). These protocols notably allow the discrimination between tolerance and persistence during infection , which is essential to clarify which phenomenon is actually reported. Methods described in this chapter may contribute to the determination of key bacterial and host genes that contribute to antibiotic persistence.

Keywords: Infection; Macrophages; Pathogen; Persistence; Persisters; Single-cell; Tolerance.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents* / pharmacology
Anti-Bacterial Agents* / therapeutic use
Bacteria / drug effects
Bacteria / genetics
Drug Resistance, Bacterial*
Humans
Salmonella / drug effects
Salmonella Infections* / drug therapy
Salmonella Infections* / microbiology

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents