In vitro sensitivity of 30 anaerobic bacterial strains of the human intestinal core microbiota to antibiotics: Culture and LC-MS/MS approaches

We have a vast knowledge on human intestinal microbiota but it can still be regarded incomplete. One of the objectives of scientists using so-called omics techniques is to be interested in the consequences that drugs can have on the composition of the intestinal microbiota and inversely. To date, few publications have reported the effects of drugs on the growth of bacteria composing this microbiota using a culturomics approach. We focused on antibiotics commonly prescribed for which the only published are the susceptibility of the pathogenic strains and not that of the commensal strains. The aim of our study was to determine the sensitivity of 30 strains considered to represent the intestinal core microbiota to 8 antibiotics and to study the possible modification of these molecules by bacteria. The 30 bacterial strains were cultured under anaerobic conditions in order to determine their sensitivity to the antibiotics. After 48 h of culture, the supernatants were also analyzed via UHPLC-MS/MS in order to determine if the antibiotics have been chemically modified. Under the current experimental conditions, cefpodoxime, metronidazole, erythromycin, sulfamethozaxole, trimethoprim and the trimethoprim/sulfamethozaxole combination have little impact on the core microbiota strain growth. On the contrary, moxifloxacin and amoxicillin inhibit the growth of numerous strains of our panel. Using UHPLC-MS/MS analyses, we have shown that some antibiotics can be modifed by the bacteria composing the intestinal core microbiome. The bacteria that make up the intestinal microbiota core are impacted by the antibiotics most commonly prescribed in clinics today and inversely. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study focuses on the sensitivity of 30 bacterial strains representing the intestinal microbiota core to 8 antibiotics, and investigates the chemical modification of antibiotics by bacteria. It finds that some antibiotics have little impact on core microbiota strain growth, while others inhibit the growth of numerous strains. The research demonstrates that the bacteria composing the intestinal core microbiome can modify certain antibiotics, highlighting the reciprocal relationship between antibiotics and the intestinal microbiota core.