The rolling circle plasmids of Staphylococcus aureus regulate their replication by controlling initiator (Rep) protein synthesis. It was demonstrated recently that the pT181 initiator protein RepC is inactivated during pT181 replication by the addition of an oligodeoxynucleotide, giving rise to a new form, RepC* (A. Rasooly and R. P. Novick, Science, 262:1048-1050). We establish here that this ...

We examined the effects of tigecycline on three types of exoproteins, α-type phenol-soluble modulins (PSMα1 to PSMα4), α-hemolysin, and protein A, in 13 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates compared to those of clindamycin and linezolid. Paradoxical increases in PSMαs occurred in 77% of the isolates with tigecycline at 1/4 and 1/8 MICs and clindamycin at 1/8 MIC compared to only...

The worldwide emergence of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) can have severe public health implications. Familial transmissions of CA-MRSA in The Netherlands were investigated. Among the families studied, two clusters of CA-MRSA could be identified. This report demonstrates that family members can serve as reservoirs of CA-MRSA which may become a serious p...

Several antibiotics have disulfiram-like effects; we evaluated disulfiram for its antibiotic-like effects. Disulfiram inhibited the in vitro growth of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, with an MIC of 1.33 micrograms/ml, but was not effective against members of the family Enterobacteriaceae or Pseudomonas species.

In the present study, we demonstrated the utility of the nonmammalian model system Galleria mellonella for studying the pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus infection. By use of clinical and laboratory strains that had been exposed to vancomycin, we showed that both agr functional status and vancomycin minimum inhibitory concentration are determinants associated with the virulence of S. aureus...

Linezolid in combination with ertapenem showed in vitro synergy against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains. We confirmed this interaction in vivo by using a rabbit endocarditis experimental model and simulation of the human pharmacokinetics in animals for both antibiotics. Linezolid plus ertapenem exhibited highly synergistic activity in vivo after 4 days of treatment.

We report the complete draft genome sequences of five individually isolated strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and a Staphylococcus epidermidis strain. These clinically important isolates have staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec type A, while Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) toxin coding genes were present in MRSA isolates only.

JNJ-Q2, a fluorinated 4-quinolone, was very active against both methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (n = 42; MIC(50/90), 0.008/0.12 μg/mL) and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (n = 69; MIC(50/90), 0.12/0.12 μg/mL) obtained from patients with acute bacterial skin and skin-structure infection (ABSSSI). Overall moxifloxacin and levofloxacin resistance rates were 31.5% and 46.9%, respectiv...

In 928 Dallas County Jail detainees, nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus was found in 32.8% (26.5% methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus [MSSA] and 6.3% methicillin-resistant S. aureus [MRSA]), and hand carriage was found in 24.9% (20.7% MSSA and 4.1% MRSA). Among MRSA nasal carriers, 41% had hand MRSA carriage; 29% with hand MRSA carriage had no nasal S. aureus carriage. The preval...

In their recent paper, Kobayashi et al. evaluated the emergence of vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) by genomic analysis (1). Based on whole-genome sequencing data for all U.S. VRSA strains isolated to date (2), they proposed that the development of resistance to vancomycin is an independent event in VRSA strains. It was our pleasure to read their article. We found that our resu...