The close link between antibiotic efficacy and bacterial metabolism emerged in recent years. Indeed, currently used antibiotics target a narrow spectrum of macromolecular biosynthetic processes, perturbing also bacterial metabolism and contributing to cell death. Furthermore, is more and more evident, that also the metabolic state of bacteria influences their susceptibility to antibiotics. In particular, cells with a reduced metabolism (for example during the stationary phase of growth, or persisters or cells embedded in biofilm), show higher resistance to the action of antibiotics. Consequently, antibiotic efficacy could be enhanced by altering the metabolic state of bacteria.
This Special Issue welcomes submissions from different research fields that deepen the relationship between bacterial metabolism and antibiotic efficacy, to find new way to overcome the problem of antibiotic resistance.