Bacterial Antibiotic Resistance Reversal in the Absence of Selective Pressure

The abuse and misuse of antibiotics, such as through self-medication, treatment dropout, or cattle fattening, result in the emergence of resistant or multi-resistant pathogenic bacteria. This emergence could be due to an increased selective pressure that kills sensitive strains, new antibiotic resistances appearing at a faster rate than in nature, with higher minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), and than the drug discovery process. Awareness and a drop in consumption seem essential to slow down this rate of increased resistance. In this study, we asked ourselves if controlling the use of antibiotics and, hence, a drop in selective pressure are sufficient for resistant pathogenic bacteria to revert to their sensitive condition. To answer this question, we carried out a bibliographic review.The analyzed data suggests that bacteria will compensate for the fitness cost due to their high adaptive capacity. Therefore, bacterial resistance will not be reverted just by lowering the selective pressure. We suggest further research on bacterial evolution at the molecular level is necessary in order to find a solution to this problem as soon as possible.