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A new antimicrobial resistance gene, VCC-1, a ß-lactamase gene, has been found in close relatives of virulent Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera. A team of Canadian researchers has now found a way to block the enzyme VCC-1, which disables this resistance gene. The research is published on February 19 in Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
Researchers from the Public Health Agency of Canada first discovered CCV-1 in Canada on frozen shrimp imported from India and sold in a Canadian grocery store. A handful of other ß-lactamase resistance genes have also emerged from India. The ß-lactamase genes encode enzymes capable of breaking down ß-lactams, which constitute an extremely important clbad of antimicrobials.
The researchers identified the gene in a non-toxigenic strain of Vibrio cholerae. Since then, VCC-1 has also been found in non-toxigenic V. cholerae off the German coast. The danger is that the transfer of a non-toxigenic V. cholerae gene to that of its toxigenic siblings is only short.
"We noticed that VCC-1 belongs to the same clbad of [antibiotic resistance] Brian Mark, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Manitoba, said: "Enzymes against which avibactam is active," said the principal author recently. "We decided to approve the avibactam". enough, it blocks the enzyme quite powerfully, "said Dr. Mark.
To see how avibactam made it possible, Dr. Mark and his collaborators used X-ray crystallography, a method of visualizing the three-dimensional structure of molecules at the atomic level.
X-ray crystallography has shown that the avibactam molecule has a protrusion that fits perfectly in a pocket of VCC-1, "the same pocket that is used by VCC-1 to break down the antibiotic," said Dr. Mark.
After that, "we returned to the original strain, Vibrio VCC-1 was originally found," said Dr. Mark. "We grew up and demonstrated that if you try to kill this bacteria with carbapenem [an important beta lactam antimicrobial]he is very resistant, which is alarming because it is a first-line first-line antibiotic, and here he is sitting on shrimp that people are eating. But if you add carbapenem avibactam, it becomes really powerful because you have blocked the VCC-1 that allowed resistance. "
The US Food and Drug Administration has recently approved an badociation drug containing avibactam and the antibiotic ceftazidime. If a patient enters a clinic with a pathogen carrying CCV-1, competent doctors will be ready.
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Material provided by American Society of Microbiology. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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