Pathogenesis

Antibiotics

Bacteria

Escherichia coli

Biology

Microbiology

Gene

Gram

Gram-negative bacteria

Immunology

Bacteremia

Gram-negative bacterial infections

Genetics

Medicine

Clinical Microbiology Reviews

Gram-negative bacteremia is a devastating public health threat, with high mortality in vulnerable populations and significant costs to the global economy. Concerningly, rates of both Gram-negative bacteremia and antimicrobial resistance in the causative species are increasing. Gram-negative bacteremia develops in three phases. First, bacteria invade or colonize initial sites of infection. Second, bacteria overcome host barriers, such as immune responses, and disseminate from initial body sites to the bloodstream. Third, bacteria adapt to survive in the blood and blood-filtering organs. To develop new therapies, it is critical to define species-specific and multispecies fitness factors required for bacteremia in model systems that are relevant to human infection. A small subset of species is responsible for the majority of Gram-negative bacteremia cases, including

Pathogenesis of Gram-Negative Bacteremia