The present study aims at comparing the in-vitro susceptibility of six commercially available cephalosporin--BLI combinations with cephalosporins alone against hospital isolates of Gram negative bacilli. Gram negative bacilli, numbering 500, isolated from various clinical samples, were included in the study. The isolates were also screened for ESBL production by the methods recommended by CLSI....

Beta-lactamases are the most widespread resistance mechanism to beta-lactam antibiotics, such as the penicillins and cephalosporins. Transition-state analogues that bind to the enzymes with nanomolar affinities have been introduced in an effort to reverse the resistance conferred by these enzymes. To understand the origins of this affinity, and to guide design of future inhibitors, double-mutan...

An estimated 12 million persons throughout the world suffer from the protozoan disease leishmaniasis. Current treatments have liabilities including poor activity against some forms of leishmaniasis, toxicity, or the need for parenteral administration. Higher throughput methods to screen chemical compounds are needed to facilitate the search for new antileishmania drugs. In the mammalian host, L...

The emergence of carbapenem resistance in Enterobacteriaceae has become a great concern. The aim of this study was to characterize ertapenem-resistant Enterobacter cloacae isolates from a Taiwanese university hospital. A total of 355 nonduplicated E. cloacae isolates collected in 2007 were analyzed by antimicrobial susceptibility testing with and without an inhibitor of efflux pumps and AmpC β-...

Inactivation of β-lactam antibiotics by resistant bacteria is a 'cooperative' behavior that may allow sensitive bacteria to survive antibiotic treatment. However, the factors that determine the fraction of resistant cells in the bacterial population remain unclear, indicating a fundamental gap in our understanding of how antibiotic resistance evolves. Here, we experimentally track the spread of...

The AmpC β-lactamases are clinically important because they confer resistance to the narrow-, expandedand the broad-spectrum cephalosporins, the β-lactam-β-lactamase inhibitor combinations and aztreonam. The clinical microbiology laboratories should be able to detect the bacterial strains which produce AmpC, since these strains may appear to be susceptible to a particular β-lactam antibiotic in...