Biofilms strike back

Abstract

Excessive use of antibiotics has increased resistance of many microbes to these drugs. In a recent issue of Nature, Hoffman et al.1 show that too little antibiotic can also be detrimental. They demonstrated that subinhibitory levels of the aminoglycoside-class antibiotic tobramycin increase biofilm formation by various isolates of the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This finding may lead to new therapies against persistent infections stemming from biofilm formation.