Evidence map›Paper›PMID 22751536›Full record

ArticleAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy2012

The antibiotic resistance arrow of time: efflux pump induction is a general first step in the evolution of mycobacterial drug resistance.

Aurelia M Schmalstieg, Shashikant Srivastava, Serkan Belkaya, Devyani Deshpande, Claudia Meek, Richard Leff, Nicolai S C van Oers, Tawanda Gumbo

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 109 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
109citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
8.4field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

109 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 191 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Macrolide-resistantJournal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2026
    Review
  4. Article
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  6. Novel regimens for treatment ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  7. Rifamycin-, macrolide-, and ethambutol-free combinations to treatThe international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease · 2026
    Article
  8. The Role of β-Lactam Antibiotics in Treating Mycobacterium abscessus: From Laboratory Insights to Clinical Applications and the Case for Clinical Trials.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026
    Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Challenges in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Mycobacterium abscessus Infections.Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical · 2026
    Review
  13. Antibiotic resistance inFrontiers in microbiology · 2026
    Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Tigecycline pharmacodynamics in the hollow fiber system ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article
  20. Article

49 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Aurelia M SchmalstiegDepartment of Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, School of Pharmacy, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Shashikant Srivastava
Serkan Belkaya
Devyani Deshpande
Claudia Meek
Richard Leff
Nicolai S C van Oers
Tawanda Gumbo
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center · USTexas Tech University · USTexas Tech University Health Sciences Center · US

Funding

Efflux pump inhibitors to reduce duration of antituberculosis therapyDP2OD001886 · OD · UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER · PI GUMBO, TAWANDA · 2007 to 2007
$2.4M
PK-PD of combination antituberculosis therapy for suppression of drug-resistanceR01AI079497 · NIAID · UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER · PI GUMBO, TAWANDA · 2008 to 2011
$2.3M
NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI079497NIAID NIH HHS R01AI079497NIH HHS DP2 OD001886NIH HHS DP2 ODOD001886-01
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We hypothesize that low-level efflux pump expression is the first step in the development of high-level drug resistance in mycobacteria. We performed 28-day azithromycin dose-effect and dose-scheduling studies in our hollow-fiber model of disseminated Mycobacterium avium-M. intracellulare complex. Both microbial kill and resistance emergence were most closely linked to the within-macrophage area under the concentration-time curve (AUC)/MIC ratio. Quantitative PCR revealed that subtherapeutic azithromycin exposures over 3 days led to a 56-fold increase in expression of MAV_3306, which encodes a putative ABC transporter, and MAV_1406, which encodes a putative major facilitator superfamily pump, in M. avium. By day 7, a subpopulation of M. avium with low-level resistance was encountered and exhibited the classic inverted U curve versus AUC/MIC ratios. The resistance was abolished by an efflux pump inhibitor. While the maximal microbial kill started to decrease after day 7, a population with high-level azithromycin resistance appeared at day 28. This resistance could not be reversed by efflux pump inhibitors. Orthologs of pumps encoded by MAV_3306 and MAV_1406 were identified in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium leprae, Mycobacterium marinum, Mycobacterium abscessus, and Mycobacterium ulcerans. All had highly conserved protein secondary structures. We propose that induction of several efflux pumps is the first step in a general pathway to drug resistance that eventually leads to high-level chromosomal-mutation-related resistance in mycobacteria as ordered events in an "antibiotic resistance arrow of time."

Indexed as

Amino Acid SequenceAntitubercular AgentsArea Under CurveATP-Binding Cassette TransportersAzithromycinConserved SequenceDrug Resistance, Multiple, BacterialFungal ProteinsGene Expression Regulation, FungalMacrophagesMicrobial Sensitivity TestsMolecular Sequence DataMycobacterium aviumPolymerase Chain ReactionProtein Structure, SecondarySequence AlignmentAntitubercular AgentsATP-Binding Cassette TransportersAzithromycinFungal Proteins

Identifiers

PMID22751536
PMCPMC3421847
OpenAlexW2132793435

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.