Treatment of Multidrug-Resistant Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium Hardware-Associated Vertebral Osteomyelitis with Oritavancin plus Ampicillin.
Dahesh. Samira S; Wong. Brian B; Nizet. Victor V; Sakoulas. George G; Tran. Truc T TT; Aitken. Samuel L SL
Key Findings
- Oritavancin plus ampicillin showed synergistic killing of vancomycin‑resistant Enterococcus faecium in a spine infection
- Checkerboard and time‑kill lab tests confirmed the synergy
- Adding rifampin or the human peptide LL‑37 further increased antibacterial activity
Practical Outcomes
- For biohackers facing hard‑to‑treat infections, a combined regimen of oritavancin and ampicillin (potentially with rifampin) may be more effective than single drugs. The LL‑37 synergy hints that supporting the body’s own antimicrobial peptides could help, but there’s no ready‑made LL‑37 supplement yet.
Summary
Researchers found that using the antibiotic oritavancin together with ampicillin worked well against a tough, drug‑resistant spine infection, and the combo was even stronger when they added rifampin or the natural immune peptide LL‑37. This shows that certain drug pairings can boost each other's ability to kill stubborn bacteria.
Abstract
Weekly oritavancin plus ampicillin continuous infusion combination therapy was used to successfully treat a deep spine vancomycin-resistant <i>Enterococcus faecium</i> infection associated with hardware. Checkerboard and time-kill assays confirmed synergy between these two antibiotics. Further synergies of oritavancin and ampicillin with rifampin or the endogenous human antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin LL-37 were demonstrated.
Study Information
pubmed
2019
2019-06-24T00:00:00.000Z
10.1128/aac.02622-18