MINI REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Translational Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1706115
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Antibiotic Candidates for Eradication of Persistent Bacterial InfectionsView all 5 articles
Mini Review: Persister Cell Control Strategies
Provisionally accepted
- 1Syracuse University, Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Syracuse, NY, 13244, USA, Syracuse, United States
- 2The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology, Knoxville, TN, United States, Knoxville, United States
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Abstract Bacterial persisters are growth-arrested cells with low metabolic activities, but have no genetic mutations compared to their parental cells. The dormant nature of persister cells enables them to tolerate high doses of conventional antibiotics and restart growth after the antibiotic is withdrawn, posing an important challenge to infection control. To promote more research in this important area, we present a concise review of current persister control strategies and discuss future opportunities.
Keywords: persister bacteria, antibiotic, antibiotic persistence, combination therapy, AI-driven drug discovery
Received: 15 Sep 2025; Accepted: 07 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hashemi, Khattab and Ren. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dacheng Ren, dren@syr.edu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.