ArticleNature microbiology2025
Polymyxin B lethality requires energy-dependent outer membrane disruption.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Disruption ofVirulence · 2026Article
- Small-molecule inhibitors block NorA efflux by conformational trapping.Nature chemical biology · 2026Article
- Cyclic tri-adenylate controls a CARF-TM effector in type II Panoptes anti-phage systems.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Selective Redox Tuning Enables Potent Intracellular Reduction of Nicotinamide Cytosine Dinucleotide.Biomolecules · 2026Article
- The role of PlsC in Brucella melitensis virulence: impacts on membrane homeostasis, stress tolerance, and pathogenesis.Veterinary research · 2026Article
- Commonly prescribed medicines antagonise anti-MRSA antibiotics and select for resistance.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2026Article
- Rule-Based Ion Prediction with Orthogonal Constraints Reveals Bacterial Phospholipid Remodeling Signatures.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- DksA-Dependent Stringent Stress Response Drives Virulence and Gastrointestinal Persistence ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Colistin Resistance: From Laboratory Research to Modern Clinical Management.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Bacterial cell envelope-targeting antibiotics.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Polymyxin heteroresistance inJournal of medical microbiology · 2026Article
- Comparative Effectiveness of Colistin Sodium versus Polymyxin B Sulfate Against CR-GNB: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Infection and drug resistance · 2026Article
- Essential fatty acids disrupt the mycolic acid-rich cell envelope of clinicalFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- The interactions between antimicrobial materials and bacterial membranes.Frontiers in chemistry · 2026Review
- BacterialBiosensors · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Polymyxin antibiotics target lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) in both membranes of the bacterial cell envelope, leading to bacterial killing through a poorly defined mechanism. Here we demonstrate that metabolic activity is essential for the lethality of clinically relevant doses of polymyxin B (PmB) and leverage this insight to determine its mode of action. PmB killed exponential-phase Escherichia coli but did not eliminate stationary-phase cells unless a carbon source was available. Antibiotic lethality correlated with surface protrusions visible by atomic force microscopy and LPS loss from the outer membrane via processes that required LPS synthesis and transport but that were blocked by the MCR-1 polymyxin resistance determinant. While energy-dependent outer-membrane disruption was not directly lethal, it facilitated PmB access to the inner membrane, which the antibiotic permeabilized in an energy-independent manner, leading to cell death. This work reveals how metabolic inactivity confers tolerance of an important, membrane-targeting antibiotic.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.