scholarly journals Synergy Between Beta-Lactams and Lipo-, Glyco-, and Lipoglycopeptides, Is Independent of the Seesaw Effect in Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rutan Zhang ◽  
Ismael A. Barreras Beltran ◽  
Nathaniel K. Ashford ◽  
Kelsi Penewit ◽  
Adam Waalkes ◽  
...  

Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) are resistant to beta-lactams, but synergistic activity between beta-lactams and glycopeptides/lipopeptides is common. Many have attributed this synergy to the beta-lactam-glycopeptide seesaw effect; however, this association has not been rigorously tested. The objective of this study was to determine whether the seesaw effect is necessary for synergy and to measure the impact of beta-lactam exposure on lipid metabolism. We selected for three isogenic strains with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin, daptomycin, and dalbavancin by serial passaging the MRSA strain N315. We used whole genome sequencing to identify genetic variants that emerged and tested for synergy between vancomycin, daptomycin, or dalbavancin in combination with 6 beta-lactams with variable affinity for staphylococcal penicillin binding proteins (PBPs), including nafcillin, meropenem, ceftriaxone, ceftaroline, cephalexin, and cefoxitin, using time-kills. We observed that the seesaw effect with each beta-lactam was variable and the emergence of the seesaw effect for a particular beta-lactam was not necessary for synergy between that beta-lactam and vancomycin, daptomycin, or dalbavancin. Synergy was more commonly observed with vancomycin and daptomycin based combinations than dalbavancin in time-kills. Among the beta-lactams, cefoxitin and nafcillin were the most likely to exhibit synergy using the concentrations tested, while cephalexin was the least likely to exhibit synergy. Synergy was more common among the resistant mutants than the parent strain. Interestingly N315-D1 and N315-DAL0.5 both had mutations in vraTSR and walKR despite their differences in the seesaw effect. Lipidomic analysis of all strains exposed to individual beta-lactams at subinhibitory concentrations suggested that in general, the abundance of cardiolipins (CLs) and most free fatty acids (FFAs) positively correlated with the presence of synergistic effects while abundance of phosphatidylglycerols (PGs) and lysylPGs mostly negatively correlated with synergistic effects. In conclusion, the beta-lactam-glycopeptide seesaw effect and beta-lactam-glycopeptide synergy are distinct phenomena. This suggests that the emergence of the seesaw effect may not have clinical importance in terms of predicting synergy. Further work is warranted to characterize strains that don’t exhibit beta-lactam synergy to identify which strains should be targeted with combination therapy and which ones cannot and to further investigate the potential role of CLs in mediating synergy.

Author(s):  
Shengnan Jiang ◽  
Hemu Zhuang ◽  
Feiteng Zhu ◽  
Xiang Wei ◽  
Junxiong Zhang ◽  
...  

The emergence of daptomycin-resistant (DAP-R) Staphylococcus aureus strains has become a global problem. Point mutations in mprF are the main cause of daptomycin (DAP) treatment failure. However, the impact of these specific point-mutations in methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains associated with DAP resistance and the “see-saw effect” of distinct beta-lactams remains unclear. In this study, we used three series of clinical MRSA strains with three distinct mutated mprF alleles from clone complexes (CC) 5 and 59 to explore the “see-saw effect” and the combination effect of DAP plus beta-lactams. Through construction of mprF deletion and complementation strains of SA268, we determined that mprF -S295A, mprF -S337L and one novel mutation of mprF- I348del within the bifunctional domain lead to DAP resistance. Compared with wild-type mprF cloned from a DAP-susceptible (DAP-S) strain, these three mprF mutations conferred the “see-saw effect” to distinct beta-lactams in the SA268Δ mprF strains and mutated- mprF (I348del and S337L) did not alter the cell surface positive charge ( P > 0.05). The susceptibility to beta-lactams increased significantly in DAP-R CC59 strains and the “see-saw effect” was found to be associated with distinct mutated mprF alleles and the category of beta-lactams. The synergistic activity of DAP plus oxacillin was detected in all DAP-R MRSA strains. Continued progress in understanding the mechanism of restoring susceptibility to beta-lactam antibiotics mediated by the mprF mutation and its impact on beta-lactam combination therapy will provide fundamental insights into treatment of MRSA infections.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly M. Hines ◽  
Tianwei Shen ◽  
Nate K. Ashford ◽  
Adam Waalkes ◽  
Kelsi Penewit ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTTreatment of methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA) infections is challenging and is associated with high rates of therapeutic failure. The glycopeptide (GP) vancomycin and the lipopeptide (LP) daptomycin are still relied upon to manage invasive MRSA infections; however, resistance to these antibiotics has emerged and there is evidence of cross-resistance between them. It has been observed that the susceptibility of MRSA to beta-lactams increases as susceptibility to GPs and LPs decreases, a phenomenon termed the seesaw effect. Recent efforts to understand the mechanism underlying the seesaw effect have focused on the penicillin binding proteins (PBPs). However, while daptomycin resistance is largely mediated by remodeling of membrane lipid composition, the role of membrane lipids in producing cross-resistance and the seesaw effect has not yet been investigated. Here, we evaluate the lipid profiles, cross susceptibilities, and beta-lactam susceptibilities of a collection of isogenic MRSA strains selected against daptomycin, vancomycin or dalbavancin (a lipoglycopeptide; LGP) to assess the relationship between membrane composition, cross-resistance, and the seesaw effect. We found that modification of membrane composition occurs not only in daptomycin-selected strains, but also vancomycin- and dalbavancin-selected strains. Significantly, we observed that typically the levels of short-chain phosphatidylglycerols (PGs) negatively correlate with MICs of GP/LP/LGP and positively correlate with MIC of certain beta-lactams, the latter being dependent on the primary PBP target of the particular beta-lactam. Furthermore, changes to certain PGs with long-chain fatty acids correlate well with presence of the seesaw effect. These studies demonstrate a major association between membrane remodeling and the seesaw effect.


Antibiotics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 496
Author(s):  
María-José Valderrama ◽  
María Alfaro ◽  
Icíar Rodríguez-Avial ◽  
Elvira Baos ◽  
Carmen Rodríguez-Avial ◽  
...  

Linezolid is a synthetic oxazolydinone active against multi-resistant Gram-positive cocci that inhibits proteins synthesis by interacting with the 50S ribosomal subunit. Although linezolid-resistant strains are infrequent, several outbreaks have been recently described, associated with prolonged treatment with the antibiotic. As an alternative to monotherapy, the combination of different antibiotics is a commonly used option to prevent the selection of resistant strains. In this work, we evaluated combinations of linezolid with classic and new aminoglycosides (amikacin, gentamicin and plazomicin), carbapenems (doripenem, imipenem and meropenem) and fosfomycin on several linezolid- and methicillin-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis, isolated in a hospital intensive care unit in Madrid, Spain. Using checkerboard and time-kill assays, interesting synergistic effects were encountered for the combination of linezolid with imipenem in all the staphylococcal strains, and for linezolid–doripenem in S.epidermidis isolates. The combination of plazomicin seemed to also have a good synergistic or partially synergistic activity against most of the isolates. None of the combinations assayed showed an antagonistic effect.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Godinez ◽  
Helen Chan ◽  
Imtiaz Hossain ◽  
Cindy Li ◽  
Srijan Ranjitkar ◽  
...  

AbstractBeta-lactam antibiotics comprise one of the earliest known classes of antibiotic therapies. These molsecules covalently inhibit enzymes from the family of penicillin-binding proteins, which are essential to the construction of the bacterial cell wall. As a result, beta-lactams have long been known to cause striking changes to cellular morphology. The exact nature of the changes tend to vary by the precise PBPs engaged in the cell since beta-lactams exhibit a range of PBP enzyme specificity. The traditional method for exploring beta-lactam polyspecificity is a gel-based binding assay which is low-throughput and typically runex situin cell extracts. Here, we describe a medium-throughput, image-based assay combined with machine learning methods to automatically profile the activity of beta-lactams inE. colicells. By testing for morphological change across a panel of strains with perturbations to individual PBP enzymes, our approach automatically and quantifiably relates different beta-lactam antibiotics according to their preferences for individual PBPs in cells. We show the potential of our approach for guiding the design of novel inhibitors towards different PBP-binding profiles by recapitulating the activity of two recently-reported PBP inhibitors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 71-73
Author(s):  
Ahed J Alkhatib

Introduction: Diabetes has various impacts on human body. It is thought that diabetes is predisposed by obesity. Obesity may due to several factors including genetically-environmental factors. The recent views that viruses may act as etiology for obesity. Study objectives: The main objectives of the present study were to investigate the possibility that CMV and HPV of having a role in initiating episodes of obesity and diabetes, and to test the hypothesis that co-existence of multi-viruses including corona virus may work synergistically to increase the impact of COVID-19 on diabetic patients. Methodology: In this study, a diabetic model was induced, the localization of HPV and CMV was determined using immunohistochemistry. Results: Study findings showed that both viruses HPV and CMV exist in the adipose tissue of diabetic rats. Both viruses were brown in color. Conclusions: Taken together, both CMV and HPV exist in the adipose tissue of diabetic rats, and this may explain the phenomenon of autoimmunity in diabetes from one side and from another side, we may explain the occurrence of synergistic effects of COVID-19 virus and the other viruses mentioned in this study.


Author(s):  
Olga Lomovskaya ◽  
Debora Rubio-Aparicio ◽  
Ruslan Tsivkovski ◽  
Jeff Loutit ◽  
Michael Dudley

QPX7728 is a cyclic boronate ultra-broad-spectrum beta-lactamase inhibitor, with potent activity against both serine and metallo beta-lactamases. QPX7728 can be delivered systemically by the IV or oral route of administration. Oral β-lactam antibiotics alone or in combination with QPX7728 were evaluated for 1) sensitivity to hydrolysis by various common beta-lactamases and inhibition of hydrolysis by QPX7728; 2) the impact of non-beta-lactamase-mediated resistance mechanisms on potency of beta-lactams; and 3) in vitro activity against a panel of clinical strains producing diverse beta-lactamases. The carbapenem tebipenem had stability for many serine beta-lactamases from all molecular classes followed by cephalosporin ceftibuten. Addition of QPX7728 to tebipenem, ceftibuten and mecillinam completely reversed beta-lactamase-mediated resistance in cloned beta-lactamases from serine and metallo enzyme classes; the degree of potentiation of other beta-lactams varied according to the beta-lactamase produced. Tebipenem, ceftibuten and cefixime had the lowest MICs against laboratory strains with various combinations of beta-lactamases and the intrinsic drug-resistance mechanisms of porin and efflux mutations. There was a high degree of correlation between potency of various combinations against cloned beta-lactamases and efflux/porin mutants and the activity against clinical isolates, showing the importance of both inhibition of beta-lactamase along with minimal impact of general intrinsic resistance mechanisms affecting the beta-lactam. Tebipenem and ceftibuten appeared to be the best beta-lactam antibiotics when combined with QPX7728 for activity against Enterobacterales that produce serine or metallo beta-lactamases.


2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Lomovskaya ◽  
Dongxu Sun ◽  
Debora Rubio-Aparicio ◽  
Kirk Nelson ◽  
Ruslan Tsivkovski ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Vaborbactam (formerly RPX7009) is a new beta-lactamase inhibitor based on a cyclic boronic acid pharmacophore. The spectrum of beta-lactamase inhibition by vaborbactam and the impact of bacterial efflux and permeability on its activity were determined using a panel of strains with beta-lactamases cloned from various classes and a panel of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase 3 (KPC-3)-producing isogenic strains with various combinations of efflux and porin mutations. Vaborbactam is a potent inhibitor of class A carbapenemases, such as KPC, as well as an inhibitor of other class A (CTX-M, SHV, TEM) and class C (P99, MIR, FOX) beta-lactamases. Vaborbactam does not inhibit class D or class B carbapenemases. When combined with meropenem, vaborbactam had the highest potency compared to the potencies of vaborbactam in combination with other antibiotics against strains producing the KPC beta-lactamase. Consistent with broad-spectrum beta-lactamase inhibition, vaborbactam reduced the meropenem MICs for engineered isogenic strains of K. pneumoniae with increased meropenem MICs due to a combination of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase production, class C beta-lactamase production, and reduced permeability due to porin mutations. Vaborbactam crosses the outer membrane of K. pneumoniae using both OmpK35 and OmpK36, but OmpK36 is the preferred porin. Efflux by the multidrug resistance efflux pump AcrAB-TolC had a minimal impact on vaborbactam activity. Investigation of the vaborbactam concentration necessary for restoration of meropenem potency showed that vaborbactam at 8 μg/ml results in meropenem MICs of ≤2 μg/ml in the most resistant engineered strains containing multiple mutations. Vaborbactam is a highly active beta-lactamase inhibitor that restores the activity of meropenem and other beta-lactam antibiotics in beta-lactamase-producing bacteria, particularly KPC-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae.


1997 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1721-1724 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Mukhopadhyay ◽  
P Chakrabarti

Beta-lactam resistance in mycobacteria results from an interplay between the following: (i) beta-lactamase production, (ii) affinity of the penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) for the drugs, and (iii) permeation of the drugs. A laboratory mutant of Mycobacterium smegmatis was studied in order to evaluate the roles of these factors in beta-lactam resistance. Mutant M13 was between 7- and 78-fold more resistant than the wild type to cephaloridine, cefoxitin, cefazolin, cefamandole, and cephalothin. Increased beta-lactamase activity toward these antibiotics was not observed in the mutant. The PBP profiles of the wild type and M13 were comparable. However, the affinities of PBP 1 for the beta-lactams tested were lower for the mutant than for the wild type. The permeation of the drugs measured in intact cells was lower for M13 than for the parent strain. The liposome swelling technique, which could be used for cephaloridine, also supported this view. Reduced permeation was not restricted to the beta-lactams alone. Glycine uptake was also lower in M13. Taken together, the results suggest that decreased affinities of PBP 1 for beta-lactams, combined with the decreased permeability of the cell wall of the mutant, lead to the development of high-level acquired beta-lactam resistance.


1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 2075-2079 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Roychoudhury ◽  
R E Kaiser ◽  
D N Brems ◽  
W K Yeh

We investigated the enzymatic acylation of penicillin-binding protein 2a (PBP 2a) from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus by beta-lactams. Using a purified, soluble form of the protein (PBP 2a'), we observed beta-lactam-induced in vitro precipitation following first-order kinetics with respect to protein concentration. We used electrospray mass ionization spectrometry to show that the protein precipitate predominantly contained PBP 2a', with the beta-lactam bound to it in a 1:1 molar ratio. Using nitrocefin, a chromogenic beta-lactam, we confirmed the correlation between PBP 2a' precipitation and its beta-lactam-dependent enzymatic acylation by monitoring the absorbance associated with the precipitate. Finally, dissolving the precipitate in urea, we developed a simple in vitro chromogenic assay to monitor beta-lactam-dependent enzymatic acylation of PBP 2a'. This assay represents a significant improvement over the traditional radioactive penicillin-binding assay.


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