The dominoes fall after long-term antibiotic exposure

Broad-spectrum antibiotics should prevent disease, right? In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Drummond et al. turn logic on its head and show they actually drive more deadly invasive fungal-bacterial systemic co-infection. Prophylactic antibiotics increase susceptibility to these infections by targeting the commensal microbes required for gut-derived IL-17-mediated immunity.

Automated summary

In this study, it is shown that prophylactic use of broad-spectrum antibiotics can actually increase the risk of deadly fungal-bacterial co-infection by targeting the commensal microbes necessary for immune response.