Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jul 20;60(7):e0080721.
doi: 10.1128/jcm.00807-21. Epub 2022 Apr 7.

The Ins and Outs of Susceptibility Testing for New β-Lactam/β-Lactamase Inhibitor Combinations for Gram-Negative Organisms

Tanis C Dingle  1   2 , Johann Pitout  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

The Ins and Outs of Susceptibility Testing for New β-Lactam/β-Lactamase Inhibitor Combinations for Gram-Negative Organisms

Tanis C Dingle et al. J Clin Microbiol. .

Abstract

Ceftazidime-avibactam, meropenem-vaborbactam, and imipenem-relebactam are among the newest β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitors (BL/BLIs) introduced to the North American antibiotic market. All have broad Gram-negative activity, including against certain carbapenemases. Despite this, susceptibility testing is warranted due to variable activity against certain β-lactamases (e.g., oxacillinases) and the presence of acquired resistance mechanisms in some isolates. Here, we discuss what we know about these new antimicrobial agents and how to navigate implementation of susceptibility testing and reporting of these agents in clinical laboratories.

Keywords: antimicrobial activity; antimicrobial resistance; antimicrobial susceptibility testing; carbapenemase; β-lactamases; β-lactams.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. McCann E, Srinivasan A, DeRyke CA, Ye G, DePestel DD, Murray J, Gupta V. 2018. Carbapenem-nonsusceptible Gram-negative pathogens in ICU and non-ICU settings in US hospitals in 2017: a multicenter study. Open Forum Infect Dis 5:ofy241. doi: 10.1093/OFID/OFY241. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2019. Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA. doi: 10.15620/cdc:82532. - DOI
    1. Tamma PD, Aitken SL, Bonomo RA, Mathers AJ, van Duin D, Clancy CJ. 2021. Infectious Diseases Society of America guidance on the treatment of extended-spectrum β-lactamase producing Enterobacterales (ESBL-E), carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa with difficult-to-treat resistance (DTR-P aeruginosa). Clin Infect Dis 72:e169–e183. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1478. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zasowski EJ, Rybak JM, Rybak MJ. 2015. The β-lactams strike back: ceftazidime-avibactam. Pharmacotherapy 35:755–770. doi: 10.1002/phar.1622. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vázquez-Ucha JC, Arca-Suárez J, Bou G, Beceiro A. 2020. New carbapenemase inhibitors: clearing the way for the β-lactams. Int J Mol Sci 21:9308–9332. doi: 10.3390/ijms21239308. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources