Objectives: Mycobacterium abscessus has emerged as an opportunistic pathogen responsible for lung infections, especially in cystic fibrosis patients. In spite of the production of the broad-spectrum β-lactamase BlaMab, the carbapenem imipenem is recommended in the initial phase of the treatment of pulmonary infections. Here, we determine whether the addition of vaborbactam, a second-generation β-lactamase inhibitor belonging to the boronate family, improves the activity of β-lactams against M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFXenobiotic nucleic acids (XNAs) offer tremendous potential for synthetic biology, biotechnology, and molecular medicine but their ability to mimic nucleic acids still needs to be explored. Here, to study the ability of XNA oligonucleotides to mimic tRNA, we synthesized three L-Ala-tXNAs analogs. These molecules were used in a non-ribosomal peptide synthesis involving a bacterial Fem transferase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBacteria resist to the turgor pressure of the cytoplasm through a net-like macromolecule, the peptidoglycan, made of glycan strands connected via peptides cross-linked by penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs). We recently reported the emergence of β-lactam resistance resulting from a bypass of PBPs by the YcbB L,D-transpeptidase (LdtD), which form chemically distinct 3→3 cross-links compared to 4→3 formed by PBPs. Here we show that peptidoglycan expansion requires controlled hydrolysis of cross-links and identify among eight endopeptidase paralogues the minimum enzyme complements essential for bacterial growth with 4→3 (MepM) and 3→3 (MepM and MepK) cross-links.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChromosomal and plasmid-borne AmpC cephalosporinases are a major resistance mechanism to β-lactams in and The new β-lactamase inhibitor avibactam effectively inhibits class C enzymes and can fully restore ceftazidime susceptibility. The conserved amino acid residue Asn of AmpC cephalosporinases directly interacts with the avibactam sulfonate. Disruption of this interaction caused by the NY amino acid substitution in AmpC was previously shown to confer resistance to the ceftazidime-avibactam combination (CAZ-AVI).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrob Agents Chemother
January 2020
, one of the most frequent pathogenic species responsible for nocardiosis, is characterized by frequent brain involvement and resistance to β-lactams mediated by a class A β-lactamase. Kinetic parameters for hydrolysis of various β-lactams by FAR from strain IFM 10152 were determined by spectrophotometry revealing a high catalytic activity (/ ) for amoxicillin, aztreonam, and nitrocefin. For cephems, / was lower but remained greater than 10 M s A low catalytic activity was observed for meropenem, imipenem, and ceftazidime hydrolysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrob Agents Chemother
September 2018
Single amino acid substitutions in the Ω loop of KPC β-lactamases are known to lead to resistance to the ceftazidime-avibactam combination. Here, we investigate this mechanism of resistance in CTX-M enzymes, which are the most widely spread extended-spectrum β-lactamases worldwide. Nine single amino acid polymorphisms were identified in the Ω loop of the 172 CTX-M sequences present in the Lahey database of β-lactamases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiagn Microbiol Infect Dis
March 2018
Infections due to Mycobacterium abscessus carry a poor prognosis since this rapidly growing mycobacterium is intrinsically resistant to most antibiotics. Here, we evaluate the in vitro activity of the new oxazolidinone tedizolid against a collection of 44M. abscessus clinical isolates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Cefoxitin and imipenem are the sole recommended β-lactams for the treatment of Mycobacterium abscessus pulmonary infections. Here, we investigated whether one of these drugs displays superiority in terms of killing and intracellular activity. We have also evaluated whether the use of a β-lactamase inhibitor could improve their activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Two β-lactams, cefoxitin and imipenem, are part of the reference treatment for pulmonary infections with Mycobacterium abscessus. M. abscessus has recently been shown to produce a broad-spectrum β-lactamase, BlaMab, indicating that the combination of β-lactams with a BlaMab inhibitor may improve treatment efficacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConditional gene deletion in specific cell populations has helped the understanding of pancreas development. Using this approach, we have shown that deleting the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene in pancreatic precursor cells leads to a doubled beta-cell mass. Here, we provide genetic tools that permit a temporally and spatially controlled expression of target genes in pancreatic cells using the Tetracycline inducible system.
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