Antibiotics · 3 authors, 6 centres
This summary was generated by AI from a single paper. It has not been reviewed by a clinician and is not clinical advice. Verify against the source before acting on it.
This narrative review summarizes current knowledge on how S. aureus adapts to healthy and diseased human skin, including atopic dermatitis and diabetic foot ulcers, covering colonization, biofilm formation, and persistence mechanisms. The central conclusion is that S. aureus uses diverse metabolic and regulatory strategies to overcome skin barriers and establish persistent or recurrent infections under pathological skin conditions.
Healthy skin presents barriers including desiccation, low pH, antimicrobial peptide production, and constant shedding of the upper layer. S. aureus overcomes these through diverse regulatory and metabolic mechanisms. In diabetic foot ulcers (DFU), biofilm formation and small colony variant (SCV) development contribute to persistence, and endogenous clones are not the sole source of infection. The review highlights that internalized SCV within host cells may drive long-term persistence and recurrent infections. Limitations include the need for more longitudinal studies and data from diverse geographical areas to clarify genotype–virulence associations.
