Understanding how antibiotics inhibit bacteria can help to reduce antibiotic
use and hence avoid antimicrobial resistance - yet few theoretical models exist
for bacterial growth inhibition by a clinically relevant antibiotic treatment
regimen. In particular, in the clinic, antibiotic treatment is time dependent.
Here, we use a recently-developed model to obtain predictions for the dynamical
response of a bacterial cell to a time-dependent dose of ribosome-targeting
antibiotic. Our results depend strongly on whether the antibiotic shows
reversible transport and/or low-affinity ribosome binding ("low-affinity
antibiotic") or, in contrast, irreversible transport and/or high affinity
ribosome binding ("high-affinity antibiotic"). For low-affinity antibiotics,
our model predicts that growth inhibition depends on the duration of the
antibiotic pulse, with a transient period of very fast growth following removal
of the antibiotic. For high-affinity antibiotics, growth inhibition depends on
peak dosage rather than dose duration, and the model predicts a pronounced
post-antibiotic effect, due to hysteresis, in which growth can be suppressed
for long times after the antibiotic dose has ended. These predictions are
experimentally testable and may be of clinical significance
