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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, November 2006, p. 3908-3913, Vol. 50, No. 11
0066-4804/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AAC.00639-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
In Vitro Antianaerobic Activity of DX-619, a New Des-Fluoro(6) Quinolone
Kaori Tanaka,*
Hiroshige Mikamo,
Ken'ichi Nakao, and
Kunitomo Watanabe
Division of Anaerobe Research, Life Science Research Center, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu 501-1194, Japan
Received 24 May 2006/
Returned for modification 30 June 2006/
Accepted 28 July 2006
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ABSTRACT
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The
in vitro activity of DX-619, a new des-F(6) quinolone, against
anaerobic bacteria was evaluated. DX-619 showed potent activity against
Bacteroides, Prevotella, Fusobacterium,
Micromonas, Actinomyces, and Clostridium
spp., with MIC50s/MIC90s of
0.03 to
0.25/
0.03 to 1 µg/ml, respectively. DX-619 was also
active against imipenem-resistant Bacteroides spp., with
MIC50s/MIC90s of 0.25/1 µg/ml,
respectively.
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TEXT
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Older fluoroquinolones, such as ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin, are
inactive or only partially active against anaerobic bacteria
(7,
11,
12,
15,
20,
23,
25,
26). Newer quinolones,
such as sparfloxacin and levofloxacin (LVX), have improved in vitro
activities against anaerobic bacteria but still have limited activities
against certain gram-positive and gram-negative anaerobic bacilli
(3,
7,
8,
11,
12,
15,
23,
25). Some of the newer
fluoroquinolones are much more active to both gram-positive and
gram-negative anaerobic bacteria
(3,
8,
11,
12,
15,
20,
26). DX-619 is a new
derivative of quinolone, defined as a des-F(6) quinolone that lacks the
six-position fluorine characteristic of the previous generation of
fluoroquinolones. It has potent antibacterial activity against
multidrug-resistant, gram-positive aerobic bacteria, including
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and
vancomycin-resistant enterococci
(2,
5). Other compounds of
this new type of quinolone showed potent activities against
gram-positive and gram-negative aerobic and anaerobic bacteria
(23,
25). There have been few
reports on the antibacterial activity of DX-619 against anaerobic
bacteria (16). We
evaluated the in vitro activity of DX-619 against anaerobic
gram-positive and gram-negative species in comparison with that of
several reference agents.
For the investigation of the anaerobic
antibacterial spectrum, a total of 71 gram-positive and gram-negative
reference strains (64 species in 25 genera) of anaerobic bacteria and
some fastidious microaerophilic anaerobes were examined. Those
reference strains include strains obtained from the American Type
Culture Collection (ATCC; Virginia), the German Collection of
Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ; Braunschweig, Germany), the
Japan Collection of Microorganisms (JCM; Saitama, Japan), the National
Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC; Wiltshire, United Kingdom), and VPI
(Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia) and
some characteristic clinical strains belong to GAI (the culture
collection of our laboratory). A total of 268 clinical strains isolated
from various sources (including intra-abdominal infection, head and
neck space infection, pleuropulmonary infection, and soft-tissue
infection) between 1994 and 2004 were also studied. Isolates were
identified by standard criteria
(9,
10,
22). In addition, the
activities of DX-619 against 11 stock strains of the imipenem
(IPM)-resistant Bacteroides fragilis group (10 Bacteroids
fragilis and 1 B. thetaiotaomicron strain) were also
studied.
The antibacterial agents used in this study were
obtained as powders of known potency from their respective
manufacturers. DX-619 was obtained from Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co.,
Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. We used four antianaerobic agents, IPM (Banyu
Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), cefmetazole (CMZ), clindamycin
(CLI), and metronidazole (MNZ) (Sigma-Aldrich Japan, Tokyo, Japan), as
the reference agents for DX-619. One of the most popular
fluoroquinolones, LVX (Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan),
and a popular cephalosporin for outpatient therapy,
ceftriaxone (Sigma-Aldrich Japan, Tokyo, Japan), were also examined.
The susceptibility of MNZ was examined only for reference
strains.
The MICs were determined by an agar dilution method in
accordance with CLSI (NCCLS) document M11-A5
(17). Brucella HK agar
(Kyokuto Pharmaceutical Industrial Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan)
supplemented with 5% laked sheep blood was used as the test medium. The
test strains (105 CFU/spot) were inoculated and incubated at
35°C in an anaerobic chamber (82% N2, 10%
CO2, 8% H2). B. fragilis
ATCC 25285 and B. thetaiotaomicron ATCC 29741 were used as
quality control strains.
The results of the susceptibility test
on the reference strains are listed in Tables
1 and
2. Overall, DX-619 showed potent activities against both
gram-positive and -negative anaerobic reference strains. Most strains
were inhibited at 0.5 µg/ml or less of this agent, including
beta-lactam-resistant strains (B. fragilis GAI 0558, 7955, and
10150). DX-619 was more active than CMZ, ceftriaxone, LVX, and MNZ.
Also, DX-619 was more active than CLI and almost as active as or more
active than IPM against gram-positive cocci and Clostridium
spp. In gram-negative organisms, DX-619 was slightly less active than
IPM and CLI against Prevotella spp. It was, however, more
active than IPM and CLI against the Bacteroides fragilis
group.
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TABLE 1. Antimicrobial
activities of DX-619 and other reference compounds against
gram-positive anaerobic bacteria and facultative anaerobic
bacteria
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TABLE 2. Antimicrobial
activities of DX-619 and other reference compounds against
gram-negative anaerobic bacteria and facultative anaerobic
bacteria
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Table
3 shows the in vitro
activities of DX-619 and reference agents against clinical strains
frequently isolated in anaerobic infection. The results are expressed
as MIC50s, MIC90s, and percentages of isolates
susceptible at the indicated drug concentrations. Against three species
of the B. fragilis group and Fusobacterium spp., the
most active agent was DX-619, with MIC90s of 0.25 to 1
µg/ml. For the B. fragilis group, IPM was the
second-most-active agent, with MIC90s of 1 to 4
µg/ml. Although CLI still showed strong activity against 68% of
B. fragilis isolates, with a MIC50 of 1
µg/ml, the MIC50 of DX-619 (0.125 µg/ml) was
threefold lower than that of CLI. In Fusobacterium spp.,
overall, the strains examined were sensitive to all six test agents and
quite sensitive to DX-619. Against Prevotella, IPM and CLI
showed superior activities. DX-619 was the third-most-active
agent in this group but also showed potent activity, inhibiting all
strains with a concentration of
1 µg/ml.
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TABLE 3. In
vitro activities of DX-619 and other reference compounds against
clinical isolates of anaerobic bacteria and facultative
anaerobic bacteria
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DX-619 was quite
active for gram-positive organisms. Similarly to Fusobacterium
strains, strains of Micromonas micros and
Propionibacterium acnes were sensitive to six test agents,
including DX-619. DX-619 inhibited those strains at
0.03
µg/ml (M. micros) and 0.125 µg/ml (P.
acnes). The Actinomyces spp. included species variously
susceptible to beta-lactams, but all strains were sensitive to DX-619
and CLI, with MIC90s of 1 µg/ml. As for clostridia,
Clostridium perfringens and other Clostridium spp.
had similar susceptibilities and most of the strains tested were
susceptible to all six agents. Against these two groups, DX-619, IPM,
and CMZ had potent activities (from highest to lowest, in that
order), with MIC90s of
0.25
µg/ml. On the other hand, most of the agents, including IPM and
CMZ, were less active against Clostridium difficile. The
MIC90s for IPM and CMZ were 16 and 64 µg/ml,
respectively, but DX-619 was very active against C. difficile
and inhibited all C. difficile isolates at a concentration of
2 µg/ml (Fig.
1).
The IPM-resistant B. fragilis group strains (11 strains)
and LVX-resistant anaerobic gram-positive cocci (14 strains) were also
examined (Table
4). All but one strain (90.9%) of the IPM-resistant B. fragilis
group were inhibited by
1 µg/ml of DX-619. The
MIC90s for the other agents were 16 µg/ml for LVX
and equal to or more than 128 µg/ml for four other agents.
DX-619 was also active against LVX-resistant, gram-positive cocci. The
MIC90 for DX-619 in this group was 2 µg/ml, sixfold
lower than that for LVX.
In the present study, DX-619 showed
excellent activity against clinically important anaerobic species. Many
antibacterial agents have poor or moderate activity against the B.
fragilis group. Against the three major species of the B.
fragilis group (B. fragilis, B.
thetaiotaomicron, and Bacteroides distasonis)examined here, DX-619 was the most active agent (MIC90s of
0.5, 0.5, and 1 µg/ml, respectively), followed by IPM. As for
the anti-Bacteroides activities of the other test agents, CMZ
was less active against B. thetaiotaomicron and B.
distasonis but active against B. fragilis. This is a
known tendency of cephamycins
(4). CLI still showed
strong activity against 68% of B. fragilis isolates, with a
MIC50 of 1 µg/ml. The resistance rate of CLI based
on the CLSI breakpoint (
8 µg/ml) was higher in B.
thetaiotaomicron (52%) and B. distasonis (44%) than in
B. fragilis (32%). Strains of these species examined in this
report were isolated from 2000 to 2002. In 1991, the resistance rates
of CLI were 29.0% in B. fragilis and 31.7% in B.
thetaiotaomicron, though a different breakpoint
(
6.25 µg/ml) and different test media (Gifu anaerobic
media) were used in that report
(24). This suggests that
resistance to CLI is increasing, especially in Bacteroides
species other than B. fragilis. In Japan, the most popular
antianaerobic agent, metronidazole, is not available as an
antibacterial agent. Under such a situation, DX-619, which is also
active against IPM-resistant B. fragilis and B.
thetaiotaomicron, would be one of the reliable
agents.
Besides that, DX-619 showed potent activity against
Prevotella spp., Fusobacterium spp., and anaerobic
gram-positive cocci. Species in those groups are frequently isolated
from major sites of anaerobic infection, such as the head and neck
space and pleuropulmonary site. As well as other infections involving
anaerobes, those anaerobic infections are usually polymicrobial
infections involving both anaerobic and aerobic bacteria. DX-619 has
been reported to have excellent activity against aerobic gram-positive
organisms and also strong activity against aerobic gram-negative rods,
such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae
(5). These data indicate
that DX-619 has the potential to be used as a single agent in the
treatment of polymicrobial infections involving those anaerobic and
aerobic species.
Gas gangrene is one of the severe
anaerobic infections. The gas gangrene-related species C.
perfringens (25 strains), Clostridium novyi A (4
strains), Clostridium septicum (3 strains), and
Clostridium sordellii (1 strain) were overall sensitive to all
agents tested and quite sensitive to DX-619, which inhibited those
strains at MICs of
0.03 to 0.25 µg/ml. DX-619 might be
useful for this anaerobic infection.
C. difficile is an
important nosocomial pathogen that is acquired exogenously, and a
variety of clinical outcomes ensue following infection, ranging from
asymptomatic colonization to diarrhea to more-severe disease syndromes.
It causes disease almost exclusively in the presence of exposure to
antimicrobial agents. The most commonly implicated agents were CLI and
cephalosporins, but recently, implication of fluoroquinolones was
suggested (6,
13,
18). After 2002,
outbreaks of a highly lethal type of C. difficile were
observed in Canada and the United States
(13,
14,
19). These strains were
reported to be resistant to clinically used newer fluoroquinolones,
such as moxifloxacin, gatifloxacin, and LVX
(13,
14). Half of the C.
difficile strains examined in this study were resistant to LVX and
CLI, but all strains were susceptible to DX-619 (MIC,
2
µg/ml). The test strains included four moxifloxacin-resistant
strains (the MICs were 8 µg/ml for one strain and 16
µg/ml for the others), and they were also susceptible to DX-619
(MICs of 0.5 to
2 µg/ml) (data not shown). These
observations suggest that DX-619 may be a low-risk agent as an inducer
of C. difficile-associated diarrhea.
A comparison of our
results to the published data on other quinolones shows that, overall,
DX-619 covers a wide range of the antianaerobic spectrum, as broad as
that for sitafloxacin. Its potent antianaerobic activity seems to be
close to that of sitafloxacin and comparable to that of trovafloxacin
(1,
3,
8,
11,
15,
20,
21,
25,
26). Fujikawa
et al. comprehensively studied the antibacterial activities of DX-619
and reference agents, including IPM and LVX
(5). They reported
antibacterial activity against Peptostreptococcus spp., C.
difficile, and B. fragilis in that paper. Our results
were largely consistent with their results. Their results indicated
that the antibacterial activities of DX-619 against those anaerobes
were more potent than those of garenoxacin, another desfluoroquinolone.
During the process of the review of this paper, another study of the
antianaerobic activity of DX-619 was published in Antimicrobial Agents
and Chemotherapy (16).
Molitoris et al. compared the activity of DX-619 and those of other
antianaerobic agents (amoxicillin-clavulanate, linezolid, meropenem,
and moxifloxacin). Though the comparator agents were
different from those in this study, we could compare the results of
DX-619 treatment for some groups of species tested in both studies
(B. distasonis, B. fragilis,
B. thetaiotaomicron, Fusobacterium spp.,
Prevotella spp., and Clostridium
spp.). The ranges of MICs, MIC50s, and MIC90s for
DX-619 were almost the same as those for these anaerobes.
In
summary, this study showed a potent in vitro activity for DX-619
against clinically important gram-positive and gram-negative anaerobic
bacteria. It was also active against LVX- and IPM-resistant strains.
Our results indicate that DX-619 would be an effective agent against
anaerobic bacteria resistant to other antianaerobic agents and has the
potential to be a useful antianaerobic agent for treatment of severe
anaerobic infection. To be useful for treatment of community-acquired
infections, the novel des-F(6) quinolone DX-619 would have to exhibit
higher levels of activity against both gram-positive and gram-negative
anaerobic pathogens with various resistance profiles. Clinical studies,
including pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic studies, will be required to
clarify the role of DX-619 in the empirical treatment of
community-acquired infections.
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FOOTNOTES
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* Corresponding
author. Mailing address: Division of Anaerobe Research, Life Science
Research Center, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu 501-1194, Japan.
Phone: 81-58-230-6553. Fax: 81-58-230-6551. E-mail:
kktb{at}gifu-u.ac.jp. 
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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, November 2006, p. 3908-3913, Vol. 50, No. 11
0066-4804/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AAC.00639-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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