This bacterium is the cause of illnesses such as pneumonia, conjunctivitis, gastrointestinal disease, meningitis and sepsis. This work provides new findings to explain the increase in erythromycin resistance.
Antibiotic resistance extends beyond erythromycin consumption
Article published in magazine Frontiers in Microbiology, Point out the cause of this resistance, which affects the effectiveness of erythromycin in treating infections caused by erythromycin Staphylococcus aureus, is associated not only with the consumption of erythromycin, but also with any antibiotic belonging to the macrolide, lincosamide, or streptogramin families. Antimicrobial resistance, caused by overdosing or incorrectly taking medications such as antibiotics, is one of the major problems in treating infections.
This work was led by the ISCIII National Center for Microbiology (CNM). jesus oteo, The director of the CNM-ISCIII Antibiotic Resistance Reference Laboratory highlighted the collaborative nature of the work, which was carried out in collaboration with the ISCIII Network Center for Biomedical Research (CIBER) and involved six groups from the field of infectious diseases (CIBERINFEC) and one in the field of respiratory diseases (CIBERES). The research was conducted in the context of the Precision Medicine on Antimicrobial Resistance (MEPRAM) project, which is funded through ISCIII’s Call for Precision and Personalized Medicine and has a budget of more than $4 million over the next three years.
The Spanish EARS-Net network group, consisting of 47 hospitals linked to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Healthcare Products (AEMPS) are also involved in this work. National Antimicrobial Resistance Program (PRAN). Oteo noted that this multidisciplinary approach “is the only way possible” if we want to successfully fight multidrug-resistant bacteria.
Genes associated with drug resistance found
In this work, a significant increase in resistance to erythromycin was observed, which associated with increased consumption of this class of antibiotics. The study supports this hypothesis, which points to a clade Staphylococcus aureus Erythromycin-resistant, known as ST398 MSSA, participates in this trend. In the field of microbiology, the term “clade” refers to a group of microorganisms that, in an evolutionary and phylogenetic context, share a common ancestor that defines the characteristics of their descendants.
Oteo explained that there appears to be a significant increase in resistance to this antibiotic, one of the most commonly used to treat respiratory infections. Directly related to increased consumption of macrolide antibiotics At the community level.Molecular analysis by genome sequencing revealed that this increase was due to the dispersion of the aforementioned clade ST398, which carries a gene called ermT This can lead to resistance to erythromycin.
they collected at work Antibiotic susceptibility data for over 36,000 bacterial strains Staphylococcus aureus The strain was isolated from blood samples of patients in 47 Spanish hospitals between 2004 and 2020, of which 137 geographically and temporally representative strains were sequenced for subsequent genome analysis. Antibiotic consumption data were obtained from the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (2008–2020).
More research to improve bacterial identification
The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that Staphylococcus aureus Methicillin-resistant (MRSA) is the main indicator of multidrug resistance in this species and one of the most relevant reasons to search for therapeutic alternatives, as resistance to antibiotics has become Fights one of the main threats of infection.
ISCIII Researcher pointed out that “having a molecular surveillance system to Staphylococcus aureus methicillin resistance “This allows us to identify the emergence of new subpopulations in clinical settings and their association with changes in antibiotic susceptibility patterns.” Finally, he added that more genome sequencing studies are needed to improve the understanding of these particularly resistant groups in clinical settings. Identification of drug-resistant bacterial subpopulations and their relationship to changes in antibiotic susceptibility patterns.
Reference article: Increased erythromycin resistance in methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus in the blood is associated with macrolide/lincosamide/streptomycin antibiotic use