Publications by authors named "Clare Kinnear"

Bacterial pathogens that are successful in hospital environments must survive times of intense antibiotic exposure and times of no antibiotic exposure. When these organisms are closely associated with human hosts, they must also transmit from one patient to another for the resistance to spread. The resulting evolutionary dynamics have, in some settings, led to rising levels of resistance in hospitals.

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The antimicrobial resistance crisis has persisted despite broad attempts at intervention. It has been proposed that an important driver of resistance is selection imposed on bacterial populations that are not the intended target of antimicrobial therapy. But to date, there has been limited quantitative measure of the mean and variance of resistance following antibiotic exposure.

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A key challenge in antibiotic stewardship is figuring out how to use antibiotics therapeutically without promoting the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Here, we demonstrate proof of concept for an adjunctive therapy that allows intravenous antibiotic treatment without driving the evolution and onward transmission of resistance. We repurposed the FDA-approved bile acid sequestrant cholestyramine, which we show binds the antibiotic daptomycin, as an 'anti-antibiotic' to disable systemically-administered daptomycin reaching the gut.

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Vancomycin-resistant (VRE) is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infection, with limited treatment options. Resistance to one of the few remaining drugs, daptomycin, is a growing clinical problem and has previously been described in this hospital. In response to increasing resistance, an antimicrobial stewardship intervention was implemented to reduce hospital-wide use of daptomycin.

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Understanding immune responses elicited by vaccines, together with immune responses required for protection, is fundamental to designing effective vaccines and immunisation programs. This study examines the effects of the route of administration of a live attenuated vaccine on its interactions with, and stimulation of, the murine immune system as well as its ability to increase survival and provide protection from colonisation by a virulent challenge strain. We assess the effect of administration method using the murine model for typhoid, where animals are infected with S.

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