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. 2022 Oct 29;75(9):1655-1660.
doi: 10.1093/cid/ciac371.

Resistance-Guided Therapy for Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Lao-Tzu Allan-Blitz  1   2 , Paul C Adamson  3 , Jeffrey D Klausner  4
Affiliations

Resistance-Guided Therapy for Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Lao-Tzu Allan-Blitz et al. Clin Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Antimicrobial-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections are a threat to public health. Novel strategies for combating such resistance include the development of molecular assays to facilitate real-time prediction of antimicrobial susceptibility. Resistance to ciprofloxacin is determined by the presence of a single mutation at codon 91 of the gyrase A gene; molecular assays to guide therapy are commercially available. Resistance to cefixime is conferred via 1 of 6 critical mutations in either the mosaic penA gene or specific loci in the nonmosaic region. Resistance to ceftriaxone is conferred through mutations in 1 of 4 genes: penA, ponA, penB, and mtr; however, the ability to predict reduced susceptibility based on those genes varies by geographic region. Here, we highlight the work done toward the development of 3 such assays for ciprofloxacin, cefixime, and ceftriaxone, discuss the status of our current understanding and ongoing challenges, and suggest future directions.

Keywords: Neisseria gonorrhoeae; antimicrobial resistance; cefixime; ceftriaxone; ciprofloxacin.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest. J. D. K. has patents pending regarding the use of molecular assays in the prediction of antimicrobial resistance and has received consulting fees from Roche, Abbott, Cepheid, SpeedX, Visby Medical, Curative, and Biomeme in the past 12 months. L.-T. A.-B. reports consulting fees from Curative Inc. The remaining author: No reported conflicts. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Mutations within Neisseria gonorrhoeae implicated in conferring reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin, cefixime, and ceftriaxone.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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