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| |  New, Virulent Strain of MRSA Poses Renewed Antibiotic Resistance Concerns PORTLAND, Oregon -- December 23, 2009 -- The often feared and sometimes deadly infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are now moving out of hospitals and emerging as an even more virulent strain in community settings and on athletic teams, and raising new concerns about antibiotic resistance. Right now, the new community-associated strain of MRSA is responsive to more, but sometimes different antibiotics than its hospital relative, experts say. But those antibiotics will almost certainly lose their effectiveness as they are used more widely, and efforts are under way to combat that issue. A study by pharmacy researchers at Oregon State University (OSU), Portland, Oregon, has identified 2 antibiotics that appear less likely to cause future antibiotic resistance, and others that if used would allow resistance to emerge more quickly. This analysis, published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, offers physicians some direction to help deal with this problem until more research can be done, they said. “The problem with invasive MRSA infections is very real and is now moving from the hospital setting to the community,” said George Allen, OSU College of Pharmacy. “The community-based strain in some ways is even more apt to cause serious problems than those most often acquired in hospitals, and increasing quite dramatically in prevalence. “The good news is that so far the community strain is more treatable, if we can keep it that way,” he said. In the new research based on laboratory analysis, scientists identified linezolid and moxifloxacin as 2 antibiotics that would be effective against, and less apt to induce antibiotic resistance in the new strain of community-associated MRSA. Antibiotics that are most apt to cause rapid development of resistance against the community-associated strain of MRSA include clindamycin and doxycycline, the research found. “We didn’t find one perfect choice of a drug that everyone could use and it won’t ever develop resistance,” Allen said. “That’s not surprising, since with constant use every antibiotic breeds resistance to it in various bacteria. Part of the goal here is just to slow down the increase in resistance while we continue to develop new approaches.” More research, animal and clinical trials would still be of value to further explore this issue, Allen said. The issue of antibiotic resistance in general and MRSA resistance in particular is huge and getting worse.
SOURCE: Oregon State University
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