Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of hospital-acquired infections. This bacterium is resistant to β-lactam antibiotics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of S. aureus strains producing enzymes capable of destroying β-lactam antibiotics in a hospital environment. This descriptive and analytic study was performed in Besat Hospital, Sanandaj, Iran, 2016, on 158 swabs colle...

β-Lactam antibiotics have long been a treatment of choice for bacterial infections since they bind irreversibly to Penicillin-Binding Proteins (PBPs), enzymes that are vital for cell wall biosynthesis. Many pathogens express drug-insensitive PBPs rendering β-lactams ineffective, revealing a need for new types of PBP inhibitors active against resistant strains. We have identified alkyl boronic a...

Acinetobacter baumanii has emerged as an important opportunistic pathogen within the hospital environment, being able to colonize and produce infections in ventilator associated pneumonia, secondary meningitis, urinary tract, septicaemia and other conditions in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. It is also causing infections in other immunocompromised patients, including burns patients. Antimi...

β-lactam antibiotics are among the most popular classes of antibacterial agents, whose mechanism of action consists on the inhibition of bacterial cell wall synthesis.1 The production of β-lactamase is the most important mechanism for bacterial resistance to β-lactam antibiotics.2 Secondary metabolites produced by bacteria exhibit potent biological activities and have been developed extensively...

Bacterial metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) are involved in resistance to β-lactam antibiotics including cephalosporins. Human SNM1A and SNM1B are MBL superfamily exonucleases that play a key role in the repair of DNA interstrand cross-links, which are induced by antitumour chemotherapeutics, and are therefore targets for cancer chemosensitization. We report that cephalosporins are competitive inhibi...

The widespread use of antibiotics has resulted in a growing problem of antimicrobial resistance in the community and hospital settings. Antimicrobial classes for which resistance has become a major problem include the β-lactams, the glycopeptides, and the fluoroquinolones. In gram-positive bacteria, β-lactam resistance most commonly results from expression of intrinsic low-affinity penicillin-b...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the most prevalent multidrug-resistant pathogens worldwide, exhibiting increasing resistance to the latest antibiotic therapies. Here we show that the triple β-lactam combination meropenem-piperacillin-tazobactam (ME/PI/TZ) acts synergistically and is bactericidal against MRSA subspecies N315 and 72 other clinical MRSA isolates in vit...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important human pathogen, which is cross-resistant to virtually all β-lactam antibiotics. MRSA strains are defined by the presence of mecA gene. The transcription of mecA can be regulated by a sensor-inducer (MecR1) and a repressor (MecI), involving a unique series of proteolytic steps. The induction of mecA by MecR1 has been described as...