Publications by authors named "Francoise Chau"

The combination of aztreonam (ATM) and avibactam (AVI) is an attractive option to treat infections caused by extended spectrum β-lactamase plus NDM-1-producing . Since ATM activity was shown to be severely impacted by an increase in the inoculum size , we wondered whether ATM-AVI activity could be impaired in high-inoculum infections. We analyzed the impact of the inoculum size on ATM-AVI activity and in a murine model of peritonitis due to susceptible CFT073-pTOPO and its isogenic derivatives producing NDM-1 ( CFT073-NDM1) and CTX-M-15 plus NDM-1 ( CFT073-CTXM15-NDM1).

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  • Urinary tract infections (UTIs), primarily caused by E. coli, are common and often recur even after antibiotic treatments, posing a challenge for effective management.
  • Researchers used a synthetic reporter to observe E. coli cell division in a UTI mouse model, finding that bacteria were more actively dividing in the kidneys and urine than in the bladder, while those surviving antibiotics were consistently non-dividing.
  • The study highlights the importance of understanding how different bacterial strains and their environments affect infection persistence and treatment response, which could lead to better strategies for combating recurrent UTIs.
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  • Temocillin is a specific antibiotic effective against multi-drug resistant Enterobacterales, but its resistance mechanisms are not well understood, especially in Escherichia coli strains studied here.
  • Researchers analyzed both susceptible and resistant E. coli strains, focusing on genetic mutations and their effects on temocillin effectiveness in lab tests and a mouse infection model.
  • Results showed that while temocillin was generally effective against certain resistant strains, one strain (CFTbaeS-AP) proved completely resistant, indicating that high minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values don't always predict antibiotic effectiveness.
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Objective: Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-E. coli) in developing countries is lacking. Here we describe the population structure and molecular characteristics of ESBL-E.

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  • * The new antimicrobial pseudopeptide Pep16 may enhance colistin's effectiveness and reduce resistance when combined, as shown in lab tests and mouse models.
  • * In tests, Pep16 alone was ineffective, but when combined with colistin, it significantly lowered bacterial counts and prevented colistin resistance in a murine peritonitis model.
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Chlorhexidine is a widely used antiseptic in hospital and community health care. Decreased susceptibility to this compound has been recently described in Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, together with cross-resistance to colistin. Surprisingly, few data are available for Escherichia coli, the main species responsible for community and health care-associated infections.

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  • There is a need for alternative treatments against NDM-1-producing E. coli, as existing antibiotics like colistin and fosfomycin often lead to resistant mutations when used alone.
  • In experiments with modified E. coli strains, the combination of colistin and fosfomycin showed effective in vitro and reduced mortality and bacterial loads in an animal model, although fosfomycin-resistant mutants still emerged in some cases.
  • Overall, while combining these two antibiotics is a promising option for treating NDM-1 E. coli infections, it does not completely prevent resistance in colistin-resistant strains.
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  • Fosfomycin resistance arises from either chromosomal mutations or plasmid-mediated genes, with some resistant isolates lacking these mechanisms.
  • The study examined different groups of isolates, identifying specific mutations that significantly increase resistance levels, as well as analyzing gene expression changes.
  • Overall, new mutations in certain genes were linked to fosfomycin resistance in clinical isolates, reinforcing the complexity of antibiotic resistance mechanisms.
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  • - Despite high Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) for imipenem (IMP) and ertapenem (ERT) against carbapenemase-producing bacteria, these antibiotics significantly reduced bacterial counts and prevented mortality in mice with peritonitis.
  • - Treatment with subinhibitory concentrations of ERT led to reduced growth rates and changes in bacterial morphology in resistant strains, indicating a potential alternative mechanism of action for these antibiotics.
  • - Overall, the study highlights a paradoxical effectiveness of IMP and ERT against tough infections linked to carbapenemase-producing bacteria, suggesting that these drugs may still offer clinical benefits even when traditional susceptibility tests show high resistance.
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  • Fosfomycin tromethamine is established for treating uncomplicated lower urinary tract infections, but its effectiveness for pyelonephritis is less understood; a study was conducted using mice infected with various bacterial strains.
  • Mice were treated with fosfomycin, showing a significant reduction in bacterial loads in kidneys, with comparable plasma levels to those found in humans after oral doses.
  • Factors influencing the drug's unexpected effectiveness included increased kidney concentration of fosfomycin, a decrease in resistance of certain strains, and reduced growth rates of bacteria in urine, indicating that local conditions may enhance fosfomycin's action against resistant strains in pyelonephritis cases.
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Objectives: Embolic events from vegetations are commonly accepted as the main mechanism involved in neurologic complications of infective endocarditis. The pathophysiology may imply other phenomena, including vasculitis. We aimed to define the cerebral lesion spectrum in an infective endocarditis rat model.

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Background: Due to a spectrum restricted to Enterobacteriaceae and stability against ESBL and AmpC enzymes, temocillin is of major interest for the treatment of pyelonephritis. But there are still uncertainties about the optimal regimen and clinical breakpoints.

Objectives: To study in a murine model of pyelonephritis the activity of temocillin against Escherichia coli isolates with different MICs in order to evaluate clinical breakpoints.

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Epidemiological data suggest that ceftriaxone may promote the emergence of commensal AmpC-overproducing Enterobacteriaceae because of a high biliary excretion. We tested this hypothesis in hospitalized patients either treated by ceftriaxone alone or receiving no antibiotics. Hospitalized patients with no previous antibiotics or hospitalization in the last 3 months, treated only with ceftriaxone, were prospectively included.

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Enterococcus faecalis is an opportunistic pathogen frequently isolated in clinical settings. This organism is intrinsically resistant to several clinically relevant antibiotics and can transfer resistance to other pathogens. Although E.

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Background: The ecological impact of ciprofloxacin on commensal enterococci is unknown.

Methods: Forty-eight healthy volunteers received ciprofloxacin from day (D) 0 to D14; stools were collected on D7, D14 and D42. Fluoroquinolone-susceptible and -resistant enterococci (FQ-SE and FQ-RE) were detected and quantified by culture, and identified by MALDI-TOF MS.

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Mycobacterium abscessus is an emerging pathogen against which clarithromycin is the main drug used. Clinical failures are commonly observed and were first attributed to acquired mutations in rrl encoding 23S rRNA but were then attributed to the intrinsic production of the erm(41) 23S RNA methylase. Since strains of M.

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A total of 458 patients were prospectively included at hospital admission and screened for extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase-producing (ESBL) Escherichia coli carriage in 2007 and in 2010 to 2012. A 4-fold increase in ESBL carriage (3% to 12%), a 5-fold increase in numbers of community patients among ESBL carriers, and a higher number of multiple ESBL strains was found in the 2010 to 2012 period. ESBL E.

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Objectives: To determine the genetic location and environment of the qnrA6 gene in Proteus mirabilis PS16 where it was first described and to characterize the quinolone resistance qnrA6 confers.

Methods: Transformation experiments and Southern blotting were performed for plasmid and genomic DNA of P. mirabilis PS16 to determine the qnrA6 location.

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Fluoroquinolone-resistant staphylococci (FQRS) are primarily selected in the nasal microbiota during fluoroquinolone (FQ) treatment. To gain insight into the dynamics of the emergence of FQRS, 49 hospitalised patients (HPs) and 62 community patients (CPs) treated with FQs were studied. Nasal swabs were collected before (T0), at the end of (T1) and 1 month after (T2) FQ treatment.

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Background: Quinolone resistance is a major global clinical problem. It primarily emerges in microbiota under selective pressure. Studies evaluating the incidence and risk factors for carrying quinolone-resistant bacteria in hospitalized patients treated with fluoroquinolones (FQs) are lacking.

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The efficacy of fosfomycin alone or combined with cefoxitin was investigated in vitro and in a murine model of urinary tract infection due to susceptible Escherichia coli CFT073-RR and its transconjugant CFT073-RR Tc (pblaCTX-M-15) harbouring a plasmid carrying the blaCTX-M-15 gene. In vitro, the combination of cefoxitin and fosfomycin was synergistic and bactericidal and prevented the emergence of fosfomycin-resistant mutants of CFT073-RR and CFT073-RR Tc (pblaCTX-M-15) that were selected with fosfomycin alone. In vivo, the combination conferred an advantage in terms of kidney sterilisation of mice infected with either strain compared with fosfomycin monotherapy.

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The prevalence of plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes [qnr, aac(6')-Ib-cr and qepA] was sought among Enterobacteriaceae strains obtained from the Children's Hospital of Tunis (Tunisia). Non-duplicate isolates (n = 278) with resistance to extended-spectrum cephalosporins and collected in 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2009 were screened for qnr genes. Forty (14.

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Infective endocarditis (IE) remains a life-threatening infectious disease with high morbidity and mortality. The objectives of the present study are to assess the host proteolytic activities of the vegetations and their cytotoxic potential in a rat model of experimental IE. Rats were infected with a strain of Enterococcus faecalis of particularly low virulence and weak protease expression.

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Background: Emergence of quinolone-resistant Escherichia coli (QREC) is an increasing clinical challenge mostly originating in fecal microbiota. The dynamics of the emergence of QREC in feces from individuals exposed to ciprofloxacin is unknown.

Methods: A total of 48 healthy volunteers received oral ciprofloxacin for 14 days.

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