The efflux pump inhibitor reserpine selects multidrug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae strains that overexpress the ABC transporters PatA and PatB.

ABSTRACT: One way to combat multidrug-resistant microorganisms is the use of efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs). Spontaneous mutants resistant to the EPI reserpine selected from Streptococcus pneumoniae NCTC 7465 and R6 at a frequency suggestive of a single mutational event were also multidrug resistant. No mutations in pmrA (which encodes the efflux protein PmrA) were detected, and the expression of pmrA was unaltered in all mutants. In the reserpine-resistant multidrug-resistant mutants, the overexpression of both patA and patB, which encode ABC transporters, was associated with accumulation of low concentrations of antibiotics and dyes. The addition of sodium orthovanadate, an inhibitor of ABC efflux pumps, or the insertional inactivation of either gene restored wild-type antibiotic susceptibility and

SUBMITTER: Garvey MI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2346654 | biostudies-literature | 2008 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature