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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, April 2001, p. 1078-1085, Vol. 45, No. 4
Departments of
Microbiology1 and Internal
Medicine,4 Landspitalinn (University Hospital),
Reykjavík, Iceland; Department of Infectious Diseases,
University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden3; and
Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark2
Received 27 January 2000/Returned for modification 14 May
2000/Accepted 23 December 2000
Clinical and animal studies indicate that with optimal dosing,
penicillin may still be effective against
penicillin-nonsusceptible pneumococci (PNSP). The present study
examined whether the same strains of penicillin-susceptible pneumococci
(PSP) and PNSP differed in their pharmacodynamic responses to
penicillin by using comparable penicillin dosing regimens in four
animal models: peritonitis, pneumonia, and thigh infection in mice and
tissue cage infection in rabbits. Two multidrug-resistant isolates of
Streptococcus pneumoniae type 6B were used, one for which
the penicillin MIC was 0.016 µg/ml and the other for which the
penicillin MIC was 1.0 µg/ml. Two additional strains of PNSP were
studied in the rabbit. The animals were treated with five different
penicillin regimens resulting in different maximum concentrations of
drugs in serum (Cmaxs) and times that the
concentrations were greater than the MIC
(T>MICs). The endpoints were bacterial
viability counts after 6 h of treatment in the mice and 24 h
of treatment in the rabbits. Similar pharmacodynamic effects were
observed in all models. In the mouse models bactericidal activity
depended on the T>MIC and to a lesser extent
on the Cmax/MIC and the generation time but not
on the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC)/MIC. Maximal
bactericidal activities were similar for both PSP and PNSP, being the
highest in the peritoneum and blood (~6 log10 CFU/ml),
followed by the thigh (~3 log10 CFU/thigh), and being the
lowest in the lung (~1 log10 CFU/lung). In the rabbit model the maximal effect was ~6 log10 CFU/ml after
24 h. In the mouse models bactericidal activity became marked when
T>MIC was
0066-4804/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AAC.45.4.1078-1085.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Penicillin Pharmacodynamics in Four Experimental
Pneumococcal Infection Models
65% of the experimental time and
Cmax was
15 times the MIC, and in the rabbit
model bactericidal activity became marked when T>MIC was
35%, Cmax
was
5 times the MIC, and the AUC at 24 h/MIC exceeded 25. By
optimization of the Cmax/MIC ratio and
T>MIC, the MIC of penicillin for pneumococci
can be used to guide therapy and maximize therapeutic efficacy in
nonmeningeal infections caused by PNSP.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Directorate of
Health, Laugavegur 116, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland. Phone: 354 510 1900. Fax: 354 510 1919. E-mail: sigurdur{at}landlaeknir.is.
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