Activity of tigecycline tested against a global collection of Enterobacteriaceae, including tetracycline-resistant isolates.

Steadily increasing resistance among the Enterobacteriaceae to beta-lactams, fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole has compromised the utility of these commonly used antimicrobial classes for many community- or hospital-acquired infections. The development of tigecycline, the sentinel representative of a novel class of broad-spectrum agents (the glycylcyclines), represents an important milestone in addressing this critical need. Resistance to tigecycline might be expected to occur via the same mechanisms that produce tetracycline resistance; however, tigecycline remains stable and largely unaffected by the commonly occurring efflux and ribosomal protection resistance mechanisms. In this study, an international collection of Enterobacteriaceae (11327 isolates; 32.8% tetracycline-resistant) from global surveillance studies (2000-2004) were evaluated against tigecycline and other comparator antimicrobials. Although the most active agents were the carbapenems and aminoglycosides (97.5-99.7% susceptible), tigecycline displayed high potency (MIC50 and MIC90, 0.25 and 1 microg/mL) with 95.7% of all strains being inhibited at < or =2 microg/mL. Despite higher MIC values observed with Serratia spp. and Proteae, between 90.5% and 97.5% of isolates were inhibited by < or =4 microg/mL of tigecycline. Tetracycline-resistant populations demonstrated only modest decreases in potency to tigecycline, which appeared to be species-dependent (up to 2-fold only for Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., and Panteoa agglomerans; and up to 4-fold for Klebsiella spp., Enterobacter spp., and Citrobacter spp.). Among E. coli (263 isolates) and Klebsiella spp. (356) that meet recognized screening definitions for extended-spectrum beta-lactamase production, 100.0% and 94.4% were inhibited by tigecycline at 2 microg/mL, respectively. These findings confirm that tigecycline exhibits potency, breadth of spectrum, and stability to the commonly occurring resistance mechanisms found in contemporary Enterobacteriaceae isolates, attributes that make this parenteral agent an attractive candidate for use against serious infections produced by these species.