102,890 research outputs found
Forthcoming therapeutic perspectives for infections due to multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens
No full textMultidrug resistance in Gram-positive pathogens emerged as a major therapeutic challenge over two decades ago. The worldwide spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), glycopeptide-resistant enterococci and other resistant Gram-positive pathogens had a major impact on antibiotic policies, and prompted the discovery and development of new antibiotics to combat difficult-to-treat infections caused by such pathogens. Several new antibiotics active against multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens have recently been introduced into clinical practice, and the antibiotic pipeline contains additional anti-Gram-positive drugs at an advanced stage of development, including new glycopeptides (dalbavancin, oritavancin, and telavancin), new anti-MRSA beta-lactams (ceftobiprole), and new diaminopyrimidines (iclaprim). This article provides a brief overview of these upcoming agents, partially based on the material presented at the ESCMID Conference entitled 'Fighting infections due to multidrug-resistant Gram-positives' (Venice, Italy, 29-31 May 2008) and on the most recent literature
Coping with antibiotic resistance: contributions from genomics
No full textAntibiotic resistance is a public health issue of global dimensions with a significant impact on morbidity, mortality and healthcare-associated costs. The problem has recently been worsened by the steady increase in multiresistant strains and by the restriction of antibiotic discovery and development programs. Recent advances in the field of bacterial genomics will further current knowledge on antibiotic resistance and help to tackle the problem. Bacterial genomics and transcriptomics can inform our understanding of resistance mechanisms, and comparative genomic analysis can provide relevant information on the evolution of resistant strains and on resistance genes and cognate genetic elements. Moreover, bacterial genomics, including functional and structural genomics, is also proving to be instrumental in the identification of new targets, which is a crucial step in new antibiotic discovery programs
Intercontinental dissemination of IMP-13-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa belonging in Sequence Type 621
No full textIMP-type metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) were the first acquired MBLs detected in Gram-negative pathogens, in the early 1990s, and are among the most relevant due to their worldwide distribution.Fil: Santella, Gisela Natalia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica; ArgentinaFil: Pollini, Simona. Universita Degli Studi Di Siena; ItaliaFil: Docquier, Jean-Denis. Universita Degli Studi Di Siena; ItaliaFil: Mereuta, Ana Irina. Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie “Grigore T. Popa”; RumaniaFil: Gutkind, Gabriel Osvaldo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica; ArgentinaFil: Rossolini, Gian Maria. Universita Degli Studi Di Siena; ItaliaFil: Radice, Marcela Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica; Argentin
From Pneumococcus to Pseudomonas: the antibacterial behaviour through the time [Dallo pneumococco alla Pseudomonas: Il comportamento antibatterico negli anni]
No full textThe worldwide use of fluoroquinolones in community and hospital settings, due to their high efficacy and tolerability, to the wide antibacterial spectrum and to the availability of an oral formulation, has created a relevant selective pressure for the emergence of resistant bacterial strains towards this antimicrobial class. Nevertheless, twenty years after development of the first fluoroquinolones (e.g. norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin) and ten years after levofloxacin introduction, the antibacterial activity of these drugs remains overall high
Rapid access to pharmacokinetics data and correlation between antimicrobial susceptibility results and drug tissue distribution using a personal computer
No full textMYMIC is a computer-aided system capable of integrating antibiotic susceptibility data with the concentrations the drugs reach in various body tissues and fluids by calculating site concentration/minimal inhibitory concentration quotients. The program can be run on any low-cost personal computer operating under MS-DOS, provided it is equipped with a hard-disk drive and with a minimum of 512 kilobytes of random access memory. The use of the program does not require any knowledge of computer languages. The antibiotic susceptibility data can be entered either as minimal inhibitory concentrations or as inhibitory zone diameters; in the latter case, minimal inhibitory concentrations are automatically calculated via regression formulas. The concentrations obtained by 90 antibiotics in 51 different human tissues and fluids are recorded in a data base of over 1,000 records, obtained from roughly 700 original papers. A MYMIC sample session was simulated by mimicking infections of three different body districts (namely bone, prostate, and sputum) caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli or Providencia stuartii
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