This study examined the effect of subinhibitory Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree) essential oil on the development of antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Frequencies of single-step antibiotic-resistant mutants were determined by inoculating bacteria cultured with or without subinhibitory tea tree oil onto agar containing 2 to 8 times the MIC of each antibiotic a...

OBJECTIVE To understand the bacterial profile and antibiotic resistance patterns in diabetic foot infection (DFI) in different Wagner's grades, IDSA/IWGDF grades, and different ulcer types in Guangzhou, in order to provide more detailed suggestion to the clinician about the empirical antibiotic choice. METHODS 207 bacteria were collected from 117 DFIs in Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital from Jan...

Small-colony variants (SCVs) are commonly observed in evolution experiments and clinical isolates, being associated with antibiotic resistance and persistent infections. We recently observed the repeated emergence of Escherichia coli SCVs during adaptation to the interaction with macrophages. To identify the genetic targets underlying the emergence of this clinically relevant morphotype, we per...

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infections present an enormous global health concern complicated by an alarming increase in antibiotic resistance. S. aureus is among the few bacterial species that express nitric oxide synthase (bNOS), and thus can catalyze nitric oxide (NO) production from L-arginine. Here we generate an isogenic bNOS-deficient mutant in the epidemic community-acquired methic...

The frequency of resistance to antibiotics in Streptococcus pneumoniae has been stable over recent decades. For example, penicillin non-susceptibility in Europe has fluctuated between 12% and 16% without any major time trend. In spite of long-term stability, resistance fluctuates over short time scales, presumably in part due to seasonal fluctuations in antibiotic prescriptions. Here, we develo...

Active efflux is regarded as a common mechanism for antibiotic and biocide resistance. However, the role of many drug efflux pumps in biocide resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii remains unknown. Using biocide-resistant A. baumannii clinical isolates, we investigated the incidence of 11 known/putative antimicrobial resistance efflux pump genes (adeB, adeG, adeJ, adeT1, adeT2, amvA, abeD, abeM,...

BACKGROUND Greater use of antibiotics during the past 50 years has exerted selective pressure on susceptible bacteria and may have favoured the survival of resistant strains. Existing information on antibiotic resistance patterns from pathogens circulating among community-based patients is substantially less than from hospitalized patients on whom guidelines are often based. We therefore chose ...

Infections caused by Escherichia coli (E. coli) have become a significant worldwide public health problem with India being no exception. Furthermore, the situation is worsening due to advent of increased antibiotic resistance due to the evolution of multi-resistant antibiotic plasmid genes. Extended Spectrum B-lactmases (ESBLs) are plasmid mediated and these enzyme producing organisms exhibit c...