Low-level Methicillin Resistance in Strains of Staphylococcus Aureus

Overview

Journal Antimicrob Agents Chemother

Publisher American Society for Microbiology

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 1989 Apr 1

PMID 2729937

Citations 39

Authors

H F Chambers

G Archer

M Matsuhashi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Two strains of Staphylococcus aureus expressing borderline or low-level methicillin resistance by one or more in vitro test methods were examined for resistance in vivo and for biochemical and genetic markers of methicillin resistance. In vivo, nafcillin was equally effective against experimental aortic valve endocarditis in rabbits, regardless of whether they were infected by a fully susceptible or a low-level-resistant strain. Resistance did not emerge during therapy. For the more resistant of the two low-level-resistant strains, methicillin was as effective as nafcillin. Nafcillin was ineffective against endocarditis caused by a truly methicillin-resistant strain, and resistance emerged on therapy. The low-level-resistant strains did not produce the low-affinity penicillin-binding protein 2a that is associated with methicillin resistance and did not contain DNA that hybridized with probes that recognized the methicillin resistance determinant. Low-level resistance in S. aureus is a phenomenon that is biochemically and genetically distinct from true methicillin resistance. These strains actually are susceptible to beta-lactam antibiotics. The clinical problem posed by these strains is not a therapeutic one but, instead, one of how to differentiate them from those that are truly methicillin resistant.

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