Revived claims that antibiotics don’t kill bacteria with reactive oxygen prove controversial

Fluorescein dyes widely used to detect oxidative stress in bacteria are probably worthless, researchers in the US say.¹ The research follows a 2024 study by the same authors concluding that another widely-used technique to detect oxidative stress was also ineffective.² Taken together, the two papers suggest the idea that the production of reactive oxygen species plays a part in the way that bactericidal antibiotics kill is likely incorrect, although this interpretation has proven controversial with other researchers.