Fighting resistance with redundancy: a path forward for treating antimicrobial-resistant infections?
Journal
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
ISSN
0066-4804
Date Issued
2025-04-02
Author(s)
Type
journal-article
Abstract
Acinetobacter baumannii</jats:italic>
(CRAB) remains a major threat, with high mortality and limited effective treatments. Sulbactam-durlobactam has emerged as a promising therapy against CRAB. Sulbactam-durlobactam was combined with imipenem-cilastatin in a clinical trial that led to its United States Food and Drug Administration approval. However, the additive benefit of imipenem remains uncertain. In a recent study (Antimicrob Agents Chemother 69:e01627-24, 2025,
<jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1128/aac.01627-24" xlink:type="simple">https://doi.org/10.1128/aac.01627-24</jats:ext-link>
), Veeraraghavan and colleagues provide convincing mechanistic evidence that adding imipenem to sulbactam-durlobactam enhances bacterial killing, likely through complementary inhibition of penicillin binding proteins, leveraging the concept of target redundancy.
(CRAB) remains a major threat, with high mortality and limited effective treatments. Sulbactam-durlobactam has emerged as a promising therapy against CRAB. Sulbactam-durlobactam was combined with imipenem-cilastatin in a clinical trial that led to its United States Food and Drug Administration approval. However, the additive benefit of imipenem remains uncertain. In a recent study (Antimicrob Agents Chemother 69:e01627-24, 2025,
<jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1128/aac.01627-24" xlink:type="simple">https://doi.org/10.1128/aac.01627-24</jats:ext-link>
), Veeraraghavan and colleagues provide convincing mechanistic evidence that adding imipenem to sulbactam-durlobactam enhances bacterial killing, likely through complementary inhibition of penicillin binding proteins, leveraging the concept of target redundancy.
Subjects
acinetobacter baumannii
;
acinetobacter infections
;
anti-bacterial agents
;
carbapenems
;
drug resistance
;
multiple
;
bacterial
;
humans
;
imipenem
;
microbial sensitivity tests
;
penicillin-binding proteins
;
sulbactam
;
antiinfective agent
;
carbapenem
;
cilastatin plus imipenem
;
durlobactam plus sulbactam
;
imipenem
;
penicillin binding protein
;
antiinfective agent
;
carbapenem derivative
;
imipenem
;
sulbactam
;
acinetobacter baumannii
;
antimicrobial activity
;
bactericidal activity
;
carbapenem resistant acinetobacter baumannii
;
clinical trial
;
controlled study
;
drug therapy
;
food and drug administration
;
human
;
nonhuman
;
review
;
therapy
;
acinetobacter infection
;
drug effect
;
genetics
;
metabolism
;
microbial sensitivity test
;
microbiology
;
multidrug resistance
;
acinetobacter baumannii
;
carbapenem-resistant
;
sulbactam-durlobactam