Evolution of Rifampin Resistance in Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium smegmatis Due to Substandard Drugs.

ABSTRACT: Poor-quality medicines undermine the treatment of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, which require months of treatment with rifampin and other drugs. Rifampin resistance is a critical concern for tuberculosis treatment. While subtherapeutic doses of medicine are known to select for antibiotic resistance, the effect of drug degradation products on the evolution of resistance is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that substandard drugs that contain degraded active pharmaceutical ingredients select for gene alterations that confer resistance to standard drugs. We generated drug-resistant Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium smegmatis strains by serially culturing bacteria in the presence of the rifampin degradation product rifampin quinone. We conducted Sanger sequencing to ide

SUBMITTER: Weinstein ZB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6325213 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature