Clinical isolates of Escherichia coli are resistant both to antibiotics and organotin compounds.

Antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli are common causative agents of human urinary tract infections. Organotin compounds (OTCs) are man-made chemicals that may affect the renal function of exposed humans and rodents. OTCs are widely recognized as bactericides. However, many environmental and a few clinically relevant bacteria have been found resistant to high concentrations of some OTCs. We examined the susceptibility from 47 E. coli clinical isolates to 12 antibiotics and 5 OTCs. Minimum inhibitory concentrations were determined by the fully automated Sensititre™ ARIS™ 2X system, and E. coli strains were classified as resistant, intermediate resistant, or sensitive, according to the M07-A10 and M100-S26 criteria from the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards. All 47 E. coli strains were susceptible to amikacin but resistant to imipenem and intermediate resistant to ampicillin, cefuroxime, and chloramphenicol. In addition, 26 strains were resistant and 21 intermediate resistant to aztreonam, 24 strains were resistant and 23 intermediate resistant to ceftazidime, 44 strains were intermediate resistant and 3 sensitive to cephalothin, and 43 strains were intermediate resistant and 4 sensitive to ciprofloxacin. Approximately half of the strains were susceptible to cefepime, cefotaxime, and gentamicin. E. coli strains were also found resistant to triphenyltin, tributyltin, dibutyltin, trimethyltin, or dimethyltin at final concentration between 10 μmol/L and 1 mmol/L, during 72-h in vitro culture. However, higher in vitro growth inhibition was induced by these OTCs in the presence of the efflux pump inhibitor carbonyl cyanide-m-chlorophenyl hydrazone, which suggests that efflux pumps contribute to making antibiotic-resistant E. coli also resistant to OTCs.