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ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE

Finding protection in the community

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 20, page 2 (2022)Cite this article

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The successful treatment of polymicrobial infections with antibiotics is difficult, in part owing to inter-species interactions, which can alter susceptibility of the bacteria to the drug; and in vitro antibiotic susceptibility testing and clinical responses might therefore poorly correlate. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the most common pathogen in cystic fibrosis, and the effect of co-infecting species on treatment outcome is not well understood. Bottery and colleagues show that Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, a common multi-drug resistant co-infecting species, can provide protection against imipenem to sensitive P. aeruginosa. This effect was dependent on S. maltophilia cell density and is mediated by a metallo-L1-β-lactamase. By contrast, S. maltophilia was not able to provide protection against meropenem, and mathematical modelling predicts that the differential effect of protection is determined by both the inactivation rate of the antibiotic by the resistant species and the rate of antibiotic killing of the sensitive species.

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  1. Nature Reviews Microbiology http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/

    Andrea Du Toit

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  1. Andrea Du Toit
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Correspondence to Andrea Du Toit.

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Du Toit, A. Finding protection in the community. Nat Rev Microbiol 20, 2 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-021-00654-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-021-00654-0

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