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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, July 1999, p. 1737-1742, Vol. 43, No. 7
St. John's Cardiovascular Research Center, LAC-UCLA
Medical Center, Torrance, California 905091;
NeXstar Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Boulder, Colorado
803012; and UCLA School of Medicine,
Los Angeles, California 900243
Received 28 December 1998/Returned for modification 1 April
1999/Accepted 23 April 1999
Optimal treatment strategies for serious infections caused by
Staphylococcus aureus have not been fully characterized.
The combination of a
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Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Comparative Efficacies of Liposomal Amikacin (MiKasome) plus
Oxacillin versus Conventional Amikacin plus Oxacillin in
Experimental Endocarditis Induced by Staphylococcus
aureus: Microbiological and Echocardiographic
Analyses
-lactam plus an aminoglycoside can act
synergistically against S. aureus in vitro and in vivo.
MiKasome, a new liposome-encapsulated formulation of conventional
amikacin, significantly prolongs serum half-life
(t1/2) and increases the area under the
concentration-time curve (AUC) compared to free amikacin. Microbiologic
efficacy and left ventricular function, as assessed by
echocardiography, were compared in animals administered either
oxacillin alone or oxacillin in combination with conventional amikacin
or MiKasome in a rabbit model of experimental endocarditis due to
S. aureus. In vitro, oxacillin, combined with either free
amikacin or MiKasome, prevented the bacterial regrowth observed with
aminoglycosides alone at 24 h of incubation. Rabbits with S. aureus endocarditis were treated with either oxacillin alone (50 mg/kg, given intramuscularly three times daily), oxacillin plus daily
amikacin (27 mg/kg, given intravenously twice daily), or oxacillin plus
intermittent MiKasome (160 mg/kg, given intravenously, a single dose on
days 1 and 4). The oxacillin-alone dosage represents a subtherapeutic
regimen against the infecting strain in the endocarditis model (L. Hirano and A. S. Bayer, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 35:685-690,
1991), thus allowing recognition of any enhanced bactericidal effects between oxacillin and either aminoglycoside formulation. Treatment was
administered for either 3 or 6 days, and animals were sacrificed after
each of these time points or at 5 days after a 6-day treatment course
(to evaluate for posttherapy relapse). Left ventricular function was
analyzed by utilizing serial transthoracic echocardiography during
treatment and posttherapy by measurement of left ventricular fractional
shortening. At all sacrifice times, both combination regimens
significantly reduced S. aureus vegetation counts versus control counts (P < 0.05). In contrast, oxacillin
alone did not significantly reduce S. aureus vegetation
counts after 3 days of therapy. Furthermore, at this time point, the
two combinations were significantly more effective than oxacillin alone
(P < 0.05). All three regimens were effective in
significantly decreasing bacterial counts in the myocardium during and
after therapy compared to controls (P < 0.05). In
kidney and spleen abscesses, all regimens significantly reduced
bacterial counts during therapy (P < 0.0001); however, only the combination regimens prevented bacteriologic relapse
in these organs posttherapy. By echocardiographic analysis, both
combination regimens yielded a significant physiological benefit by
maintaining normal left ventricular function during treatment and
posttherapy compared with oxacillin alone (P < 0.001). These results suggest that the use of intermittent MiKasome
(similar to daily conventional amikacin) enhances the in vivo
bactericidal effects of oxacillin in a severe S. aureus
infection model and preserves selected physiological functions in
target end organs.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, St. John's Cardiovascular Research Center, Bldg. RB-2, LAC-Harbor UCLA Medical Center, 1000 West
Carson St., Torrance, CA 90509. Phone: (310) 222-6423. Fax: (310)
782-2016. E-mail: xiong{at}humc.edu.
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