title: In vitro activity of daptomycin against vancomycin-resistant enterococci of various Van types and comparison of susceptibility testing methods.
abstract: The increasing prevalence of vancomycin-resistant enterococcal (VRE) infections and the limited number of antimicrobial agents for their treatment emphasize a need for new, more effective agents. In this study, the in vitro activity of daptomycin was determined against a collection of 156 VRE from seven different institutions. Van types were characterized by PCR, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was performed to exclude isolates with >85% relatedness by dendrogram. Included were 126 Enterococcus faecium (109 vanA, 17 vanB) isolates, 5 Enterococcus faecalis (3 vanA, 2 vanB) isolates, 2 Enterococcus avium (vanA) isolates, 1 Enterococcus durans (vanA) isolate, 10 Enterococcus gallinarum (vanC1) isolates, and 12 Enterococcus casseliflavus (vanC2) isolates. MICs of daptomycin and five additional agents were determined by the NCCLS broth microdilution method with Mueller-Hinton (MH) broth containing supplemental calcium. MICs were also determined using two investigational E-test strip formulations, and disk diffusion testing was performed by the standard NCCLS method. The MIC of daptomycin at which 50% of the isolates tested were inhibited for this isolate collection was 4 microg/ml, and the MIC at which 90% of the isolates tested were inhibited was 8 microg/ml. Two isolates of vanA E. faecium were resistant to linezolid, and one isolate was resistant to quinupristin-dalfopristin. MICs of daptomycin determined by the E test with and without added calcium varied by 8- to 16-fold, and disk diffusion zones varied by 3 to 6 mm according to the calcium content of the commercial MH agar lots used in the study. This study has shown daptomycin to have good activity against a diverse collection of contemporary VRE isolates. However, improved standardization of the calcium content of MH agar will be important for reliable testing of daptomycin by clinical laboratories using either the E test or disk diffusion methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 78229, USA. jorgensen@uthscsa.edu
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Jorgensen
authors.forename: Sharon A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.forename: Cynthia C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Jan E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Patterson
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002118:Calcium / Q000494:pharmacology; D019729:Carbon-Oxygen Ligases / Q000235:genetics; D003470:Culture Media; D017576:Daptomycin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004058:Diffusion; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000379:methods*; D011786:Quality Control; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020713:Vancomycin Resistance
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003470:Culture Media; C071437:VanA ligase, Bacteria; D019729:Carbon-Oxygen Ligases; D017576:Daptomycin; D002118:Calcium