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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, September 2006, p. 3170-3172, Vol. 50, No. 9
0066-4804/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AAC.00571-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
In Vitro Activities of DA-7157 and DA-7218 against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Nocardia brasiliensis
Lucio Vera-Cabrera,1*
Eva Gonzalez,1
Adrian Rendon,2
Jorge Ocampo-Candiani,1
Oliverio Welsh,1
Victor M. Velazquez-Moreno,1
Sung Hak Choi,3 and
Carmen Molina-Torres1
Servicio de Dermatología, Hospital Universitario José E. González, Monterrey, N.L., México 64460,1
Servicio de Neumología, Hospital Universitario José E. González, Monterrey, N.L., México 64460,2
Research Laboratory, Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Yongin, Korea3
Received 9 May 2006/
Returned for modification 7 June 2006/
Accepted 20 June 2006

ABSTRACT
The in vitro activities of DA-7157, a novel oxazolidinone, against
clinical isolates of
Nocardia brasiliensis and
Mycobacterium tuberculosis were determined. Equal MIC
50s and MIC
90s (0.25
and 0.5 µg/ml, respectively) were found for susceptible
and multidrug-resistant isolates of
M. tuberculosis. The
N. brasiliensis isolates showed an MIC
90 of 1 µg/ml and an
MIC
50 of 1 µg/ml. The DA-7157 prodrug, DA-7218, exhibited
similar MICs for
M. tuberculosis but fivefold-higher MICs for
N. brasiliensis.

TEXT
Oxazolidinones are a new, unique class of synthetic antibacterial
agents effective against many gram-positive bacteria, including
aerobic pathogenic actinomycetes of the genera
Mycobacterium,
Nocardia, and
Actinomadura (
3,
7,
8,
9). Linezolid, the first
oxazolidinone on the market, has been proven to be active in
animal models (
2), as well as in clinical trials with patients
infected with
Nocardia spp. (
5) or
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (
1). Oxazolidinones selectively inhibit bacterial protein synthesis
by binding to bacterial 23S rRNA of the 50S subunit and preventing
the formation of a functional 70S initiation complex (
6). The
antibacterial activity of oxazolidinones depends on the affinity
for the site of action on the ribosome; therefore, by modifying
their chemical structure, new compounds with improved antimicrobial
activity can be obtained.
Recently, a new oxazolidinone, DA-7157, was shown to be active in vitro against several gram-positive species, with the observation of a level of activity superior to that of linezolid (K. Lee, J. H. Yum, D. Yong, Y. Chong, S. H. Choi, and J. K. Rhee, Abstr. 45th Intersci. Conf. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother., abstr. F-1419, 2005). The DA-7157 compound is produced by the metabolism of a highly hydrophilic prodrug, DA-7218 (Fig. 1). In the present work, we report the in vitro susceptibilities of clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis, including isolates of drug-resistant M. tuberculosis, and isolates of Nocardia brasiliensis obtained from patients suffering from mycetoma to both DA-7157 and its prodrug.
Both oxazolidinones DA-7157 and DA-7218 were obtained from Dong-A
Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd., Yongin, Korea. Stock solutions
of DA-7157 were prepared in 100% dimethyl sulfoxide and 7H9GC
broth (4.7 g of Middlebrook 7H9 broth base [Difco, Detroit,
Mich.], 20 ml of 10% [vol/vol] glycerol, 1 g of Bacto Casitone
[Difco], 880 ml of distilled water, 100 ml of oleic acid-albumindextrose-catalase
[Becton Dickinson, Maryland] [
8]). The stock solution of DA-7218
was prepared in distilled water. In order to compare our results,
we also performed susceptibility assays with linezolid, a drug
previously tested in vitro against
M. tuberculosis with good
results. The latter was obtained from Pharmacia and Upjohn (Kalamazoo,
Mich.), and the stock was prepared in 7H9GC broth. All working
solutions were diluted in 7H9GC broth to a 2
x concentration
prior to their addition to the microplates. Dimethyl sulfoxide
controls were also run to determine its possible toxicity on
the microorganisms.
A total of 95 M. tuberculosis isolates were tested, including 8 isolates resistant to isoniazid, 1 isolate resistant to rifampin, and 25 clinical isolates resistant to both isoniazid and rifampin. The susceptibility assays were performed by the proportion method. For controls, we ran M. tuberculosis H37Rv and H37Ra. In order to determine the susceptibilities to linezolid, DA-7157, and DA-7218, the broth microdilution method with Alamar Blue was utilized (8). In brief, mycobacterial suspensions were prepared in 0.04% (vol/vol) Tween 80-0.2% bovine serum albumin so their turbidities equaled a McFarland turbidity standard of 1. Suspensions were further diluted 1:25 in 7H9GC broth. The rest of the technique was performed as published before (8). The MIC was defined as the lowest drug concentration which prevented a color change of blue to pink. M. tuberculosis H37Rv was run as a susceptible-strain control.
For the N. brasiliensis isolates (n = 31), we utilized the broth microdilution method previously described (9). Briefly, we prepared a cellular suspension from fresh colonies grown on Sabouraud agar (7 days old) in 1 ml of saline solution and diluted it with cation-adjusted Mueller-Hinton broth until the turbidity equaled a 0.5 McFarland standard. The suspension was diluted with Mueller-Hinton broth to obtain a final concentration of 1 x 104 to 5 x 104 CFU per well in 0.1 ml and then added to microplate wells (Microtest Primaria; Becton Dickinson and Co., Franklin Lakes, NJ) containing an equal volume of broth (0.1 ml) with serial dilutions of the drugs tested. After 3 days of incubation at 35°C, the plates were read and the MIC (the lowest concentration of drug totally inhibiting nocardial growth) was determined. For external controls, we utilized Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213. All the antimicrobials were tested at concentrations of 64 to 0.015 µg/ml.
The range of MICs, the MIC50s, and the MIC90s for the M. tuberculosis isolates are shown in Table 1. All the isolates tested were inhibited at
0.5 µg/ml, including the drug-resistant isolates. The ranges, MIC50s, and MIC90s for the multidrug-resistant strains were exactly the same. Comparatively, DA-7157 was slightly more active than linezolid (the MIC50 and MIC90 were 1 and 2 µg/ml, respectively) (8) and much less active than DA-7867 (the MIC50 and MIC90 were 0.0625 and 0.125 µg/ml, respectively) (8). The prodrug of DA-7157, DA-7218, is theoretically inactive in vitro; in order to corroborate this, we tested 10 susceptible and 10 drug-resistant M. tuberculosis isolates. We observed similar MICs for all isolates, with an MIC90 and MIC50 of 0.5 µg/ml.
In Table
2, the susceptibilities of the
N. brasiliensis isolates
to DA-7157 are compared with those of the isolates to linezolid.
The MIC
50 and MIC
90 were both 1 µg/ml, very similar to
the values obtained for linezolid, although much higher than
those reported for DA-7867 (
9). When testing the prodrug, DA-7218,
we observed fivefold-higher MICs.
Mycetoma is a chronic infectious disease caused mainly by
N. brasiliensis in Mexico (
4). Therapy is given for several months,
and the best schemes have a cure rate ranging from 70%, with
trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (SXT), to 95%, with SXT-amikacin
(
10), and although several drugs have been used in isolated
cases, there are not many alternatives for the cases of drug
resistance and cases in which side effects to these drugs develop.
Linezolid has been used in a few cases of nocardial infections,
and good results have been obtained (
5), which opens the possibility
for new oxazolidinones to be used. In a previous work, we observed
the exquisite susceptibility of
N. brasiliensis to a new oxazolidinone,
DA-7867; however, the in vivo assays are complicated because
of the drug's poor solubility in water. As we showed, the new
compound tested, DA-7157, is not as potent in vitro as DA-7867;
however, its prodrug is highly soluble in water, and that might
facilitate its deposition in tissues. In initial in vivo assays
with DA-7218, using an experimental model of infection with
N. brasiliensis in BALB/c mice, we observed that this drug is
more active than linezolid (N. A. Espinoza-Gonzalez, O. Welsh,
G. Lozano, S. Said-Fernandez, J. Ocampo-Candiani, J. Castro-Garza,
and L. Vera-Cabrera, unpublished data). These results make DA-7157
an excellent candidate to be used in human cases, perhaps at
lower doses than linezolid. However, this drug is experimental,
and its toxicological properties and pharmacokinetics in humans
are yet to be determined.
Many chemical derivatives of the common structure of oxazolidinones have been assayed in vitro, with various results being obtained. Structurally, DA-7157 and DA-7218 are identical, with the exception of a Na2PO4 group instead of an OH in the oxazolidinone ring (Fig. 1), which makes DA-7218 more hydrophilic. In the present work, we also observed that M. tuberculosis isolates, even the drug-resistant ones, are susceptible to low concentrations of DA-7157. Although there is no cutoff point to define susceptibility or resistance for these oxazolidinones in the case of M. tuberculosis, since the MICs are lower than those of linezolid and this drug has been proven to be active clinically, we consider them of potential clinical use. As we mentioned above, the advantage of DA-7157 is the high solubility of the prodrug DA-7182, permitting a higher availability and perfusion in the tissues and eliminating the infection, as we have seen with experimental infections with N. brasiliensis, better than linezolid, although the in vivo effect in tuberculosis is still to be determined.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Servicio de Dermatología, Hospital Universitario José E. González, Madero y Gonzalitos, Col. Mitras Centro, Monterrey, N.L., México. Phone: (5281) 8348-0383. Fax: (5281) 8348-4407. E-mail:
luvera_99{at}yahoo.com.


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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, September 2006, p. 3170-3172, Vol. 50, No. 9
0066-4804/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AAC.00571-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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