Abstract
By definition, persister cells must resume growth after the bactericidal treatment. Growth resumption can also lead to the reoccurrence of the infections and is, therefore, the reason why persisters are considered clinically important. Furthermore, treatments that enforce the dormant bacteria to resuscitate during the antibiotic treatment might become a key for eradicating persistent infections. Unfortunately, resuscitation of dormant bacteria is still poorly studied and very little is known about resuscitation of persisters during infection.
In this chapter, we have summarized the knowledge of factors that affect growth resumption of bacterial cells in general, and more specifically, after antibiotic treatment. We also touch the potentially relevant field of Viable but nonculturable (VBNC) cells. To illustrate how different can be persister resuscitation in vivo compared to the in vitro conditions we draw an example from urinary tract infection. Understanding the mechanisms of bacterial growth resumption inside the host is one very promising direction where the field could move in order to find new therapeutic options against persistent infections.
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This work was supported by Estonian Research Council (grant PRG335), and by the European Regional Development Fund (through the Centre of Excellence in Molecular Cell Engineering). We thank David Schryer for correcting the English language.
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Jõers, A., Putrinš, M., Kaldalu, N., Luidalepp, H., Tenson, T. (2019). Persister Resuscitation. In: Lewis, K. (eds) Persister Cells and Infectious Disease. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25241-0_9
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