Evaluation of post-antibiotic effect in Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria

Although the postantibiotic effect (PAE) is a well recognized phenomenon, the mechanism by which it is induced has not fully elucidated yet. It has been suggested that PAE is the time required by bacteria to synthesize proteins or mRNA characterized by a short half-life that are consumed during antibiotic treatment.This phenomenon is widely studied on Gram-positive cocci and Gram-negative rods, while information about Gram-positive rods and Gram-negative cocci are scanty.To gain new insights on the PAE, this study was addressed to evaluated the time required by Moraxella catarrhalis and Lactobacillus planctarum to resume their physiological growth rate after exposure to various antibiotics. Methods PAE was estimated in accordance with the method of Craig and Gudmundsson using the following drugs: penicillin, piperacillin-tazobactam, cefalotin, ceftazidime, imipenem, ciprofloxacin, gentamycin and azithromycin. Log-phase bacteria were exposed to drug at a concentration corresponding to 4 times the MIC value for 1h.The drug was inactivated by 1:1000 dilution. Bacterial counts were determined at time zero, immediately after drug dilution, and at each hour after removal for 6 - 7h by a pour-plate technique. The PAE was defined as the difference in time required by test and control cultures to increase by 1 log in CFU number. Results All drugs tested induced a PAE on the strains studied. M. catarrhalis registered PAE values ranging between 0,5 (gentamycin) and 2 (ceftazidime, imipenem and azithromycin).With respect to L. plantarum a PAE between 0,8 (cefalotin) and 3 hours (ciprofloxacin) were detected. Conclusion. These findings demonstrated that all the drugs tested were able to induce a PAE on the strains tested.This observation differs from that observed on Gram-negative rods characterised by negative PAE values induced by penicillins and cephalosporins.This results might reflect the different target of these compounds on these Gram-positive rods or the different affinity of the antibiotics to several PBPs that required more time to restore the physiological fitness of the bacterial cell.