Finding a sugary foothold: how antibiotics pave the way for enteric pathogens.
Antibiotic therapy predisposes the host to infections with human enteropathogens. In a recent study, Ng et al. (2013) demonstrate that antibiotic-mediated disruption of the microbial food web gives rise to free microbiota-liberated monosaccharides in the gut, which can promote growth of enteropathogenic bacteria.