Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the major threats in clinical infections due to its antibiotic resistance ability. It shows increasing resistance to carbapenems, mainly due to β-lactamase mediated mechanisms. The aim of this study was to investigate carbapenem resistance (CR) profiles and analyze β-lactamases genes composition of clinical A. baumannii strains from a teaching hospital in Xi'an...

Highly mutable β-lactamases are responsible for the ability of Gram-negative bacteria to resist β-lactam antibiotics. Using site-directed mutagenesis technique, we have produced in vitro a number of recombinant analogs of naturally occurring TEM-type β-lactamases, bearing the secondary substitution Q39K and key mutations related to the extended-spectrum (E104K, R164S) and inhibitor-resistant (M...

The Lactamase Engineering Database (www.LacED.uni-stuttgart.de) was developed to facilitate the classification and analysis of TEM β-lactamases. The current version contains 474 TEM variants. Two hundred fifty-nine variants form a large scale-free network of highly connected point mutants. The network was divided into three subnetworks which were enriched by single phenotypes: one network with ...

β-Lactamases are the main cause of bacterial resistance to penicillins, cephalosporins and related β-lactam compounds. These enzymes inactivate the antibiotics by hydrolysing the amide bond of the β-lactam ring. Class A β-lactamases are the most widespread enzymes and are responsible for numerous failures in the treatment of infectious diseases. The introduction of new β-lactam compounds, which...

Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) are widespread in hospital settings worldwide. The present investigation was undertaken to assess the distribution and prevalence of ESBLs belonging to the TEM and SHV families in 448 ESBL-producing clinical isolates of Enterobacteriaceae collected from 10 different Italian hospitals. The natures of TEM and SHV determinants were identified by direct seq...

The TEM-1 and SHV-1 beta-lactamases are important contributors to resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics in gram-negative bacteria. These enzymes share 68% amino acid sequence identity and their atomic structures are nearly superimposable. Extended-spectrum cephalosporins were introduced to avoid the action of these beta-lactamases. The widespread use of antibiotics has led to the evolution of v...

Bacterial -lactamases are the major causes of resistance to -lactam antibiotics. Three classes of these enzymes are believed to have evolved from ancestral penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs), enzymes responsible for bacterial cell wall biosynthesis. Both -lactamases and PBPs are able to efficiently form acyl-enzyme species with -lactam antibiotics. In contrast to -lactamases, PBPs are unable to...