1887

Journal of Medical Microbiology logo

Volume 6, Issue 4

Interactions Between Fusidic Acid And Penicillins Free

Abstract

SUMMARY

Interactions were studied between fusidic acid and each of several penicillins in their effect on both penicillinase-positive and penicillinase-negative strains of Estimation of the number of staphylococci that survived overnight exposure to the antibiotics, alone and in combination, showed three types of interaction.

In the commonest type, exhibited by more than half the penicillinase-positive and almost all the penicillinase-negative strains, there was two-way antagonism; more staphylococci survived overnight incubation in the presence of fusidic acid plus a penicillin than in the presence of either agent alone. Further evidence that penicillin antagonised the action of fusidic acid against these strains was provided by scanning electron microscopy, which revealed that the cell-wall collapse that followed the action of fusidic acid was inhibited by the presence of a penicillin.

In the second type of interaction there was one-way antagonism of penicillin by fusidic acid; least survivors were recovered after incubation with a penicillin alone, more from the mixture and most from fusidic acid alone.

The remaining strains showed “indifference”, in that the effect of the more bactericidal agent—which against some strains was fusidic acid—prevailed. Even when the effect of penicillin on the bulk of the bacterial population was antagonised, the presence of penicillin always prevented the emergence of fusidic acid-resistant mutants.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
© J. MED. MICROBIOL. 1973
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-6-4-441
1973-11-01
2024-12-07
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jmm/6/4/medmicro-6-4-441.html?itemId=/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-6-4-441&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Barber Mary, Waterworth Pamela M. 1962; Antibacterial activity in vitro of fucidin. Lancet, Lond 1:931
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bigger J. W. 1944; Treatment of staphylococcal infections with intermittent sterilization. Lancet, Lond 2:497
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Garrod L. P., O’Grady F. 1971; Antibiotic and chemotherapy. 3rd ed Edinburgh and London: p 470
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Greenwood D., O’Grady F. 1969; Antibiotic induced surface changes in micro-organisms demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy. Science, N.Y 163:1076
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Greenwood D., O’Grady F. 1972; Scanning electron microscopy of Staphylococcus aureus exposed to some common anti-staphylococcal agents. J. Gen. Microbiol 70:263
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Gunnison J. B., Fraher M. A., Jawetz E. 1964; Persistence of Staphylococcus aureus in penicillin in vitro. J. Gen. Microbiol 35:335
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Hale C. M. F. 1953; The use of phosphomolybdic acid in the mordanting of bacterial cell walls. Lab. Practice 2:115
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Harvey C. L., Sm C. J., Knight S. G. 1967 In Antibiotics vol 1: Mechanism of action, edited by Gottlieb D., Shaw P. D. New York: p 404
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Jawetz E., Gunnison J. B., Coleman V. R., Kempe H. C. 1955; A laboratory-test of bacterial sensitivity to combinations of antibiotics. Am. J. Clin. Path 25:1016
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Jensen K. A., Kiaer I. 1964; Fucidin—a study on problems of resistance. Acta. path, microbiol. scand 60:271
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Jensen K., Lassen H. C. A. 1969; Combined treatment with antibacterial chemotherapeutic agents in staphylococcal infections. Q. Jl Med 38:91
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Mouton R. P., Koelman A. 1966; The interaction patterns of combined antibacterial agents. Chemotherapia 11:10
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Tanaka N., Kinoshita T., Masukawa H. 1968; Mechanisms of protein synthesis inhibition by fusidic acid and related antibiotics. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun 30:278
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Tipper D. J., Strominger J. L. 1965; Mechanism of action of penicillins: a proposal based on their structural similarity to acyl-d-alanyl-d-alanine. Proc. Natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A 54:1133
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Waterworth Pamela M. 1963; Apparent synergy between penicillin and erythromycin or fusidic acid. Clin. Med 70:941
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Watson B. W., Gauci C. L., Blache L., O’Grady F. W. 1969; A simple turbidity cell for continuously monitoring the growth of bacteria. Physics Med. Biol 14:555
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Wise E. M., Park J. T. 1965; Penicillin: its basic site of action as an inhibitor of a peptide cross-linking reaction in cell wall mucopeptide synthesis. Proc. Natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A 54:75
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-6-4-441
Loading
Interactions Between Fusidic Acid And Penicillins
J. Med. Microbiol. 6, 441 (1973); https://doi.org/10.1099/00222615-6-4-441
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-6-4-441
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-6-4-441
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Most cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error