Mass spectrometry-based metabolomics for the investigation of antibiotic-bacterial interactions

With the development of analytical technologies especially mass spectrometry, metabolomics is becoming increasingly hot in the field of studying antibiotic-bacterial interactions. On the one hand, metabolomics can reveal metabolic perturbations in bacteria in the presence of antibiotics and expose metabolic mechanisms. On the other hand, through in-depth analysis of bacterial metabolic profiles, biomarkers and bioactive secondary metabolites with great potential as drug precursors can be discovered. This review focuses on the experimental workflow of bacterial metabolomics and its application to study the interaction between bacteria and antibiotics. Metabolomics improves the understanding of antibiotic lethality, reveals metabolic perturbations in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, guides the diagnosis and antibiotic treatment of infectious diseases, and aids in the exploration of antibacterial metabolites in nature. Furthermore, current limitations and directions for future developments in this area are discussed.