Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23669380›Full record

ArticleAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy2013

Evaluation of reduced susceptibility to quaternary ammonium compounds and bisbiguanides in clinical isolates and laboratory-generated mutants of Staphylococcus aureus.

Leonardo Furi, Maria Laura Ciusa, Daniel Knight, Valeria Di Lorenzo, Nadia Tocci, Daniela Cirasola, Lluis Aragones, Joana Rosado Coelho, Ana Teresa Freitas, Emmanuela Marchi and 9 more

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
55citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
6.4field-weighted citation impact, top 3% 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

55 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 113 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. NorA and Tet38 efflux pumps enableAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2025
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Genomic analysis of theFrontiers in microbiology · 2025
    Article
  8. Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024
    Review
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Screening ofMicroorganisms · 2023
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Occurrence and Variability of the Efflux Pump GeneInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022
    Article
  14. Review
  15. Virulence Potential of Biofilm-ProducingAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022
    Article
  16. Article
  17. Increasing usage of chlorhexidine in health care settings: blessing or curse? A narrative review of the risk of chlorhexidine resistance and the implications for infection prevention and control.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2022
    Review
  18. Article
  19. Review
  20. Article
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

19 authors at 9 institutions in 5 countries.

Leonardo FuriLAMMB, Dipartimento Biotecnologie, Università di Siena, Siena, Italy.
Maria Laura Ciusa
Daniel Knight
Valeria Di Lorenzo
Nadia Tocci
Daniela Cirasola
Lluis Aragones
Joana Rosado Coelho
Ana Teresa Freitas
Emmanuela Marchi
Laura Moce
Pilar Visa
John Blackman Northwood
Carlo Viti
Elisa Borghi
Graziella Orefici
BIOHYPO Consortium
Ian Morrissey
Marco Rinaldo Oggioni
University of Siena · ITEurofins (Denmark) · DKFordham University · USQuotient Clinical (United Kingdom) · GBUniversity of Florence · ITUniversity of Milan · ITInstituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores Investigação e Desenvolvimento · PTIstituto Superiore di Sanità · ITUniversity of Lisbon · PT

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The MICs and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) for the biocides benzalkonium chloride and chlorhexidine were determined against 1,602 clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus. Both compounds showed unimodal MIC and MBC distributions (2 and 4 or 8 mg/liter, respectively) with no apparent subpopulation with reduced susceptibility. To investigate further, all isolates were screened for qac genes, and 39 of these also had the promoter region of the NorA multidrug-resistant (MDR) efflux pump sequenced. The presence of qacA, qacB, qacC, and qacG genes increased the mode MIC, but not MBC, to benzalkonium chloride, while only qacA and qacB increased the chlorhexidine mode MIC. Isolates with a wild-type norA promoter or mutations in the norA promoter had similar biocide MIC distributions; notably, not all clinical isolates with norA mutations were resistant to fluoroquinolones. In vitro efflux mutants could be readily selected with ethidium bromide and acriflavine. Multiple passages were necessary to select mutants with biocides, but these mutants showed phenotypes comparable to those of mutants selected by dyes. All mutants showed changes in the promoter region of norA, but these were distinct from this region of the clinical isolates. Still, none of the in vitro mutants displayed fitness defects in a killing assay in Galleria mellonella larvae. In conclusion, our data provide an in-depth comparative overview on efflux in S. aureus mutants and clinical isolates, showing also that plasmid-encoded efflux pumps did not affect bactericidal activity of biocides. In addition, current in vitro tests appear not to be suitable for predicting levels of resistance that are clinically relevant.

Indexed as

Drug Resistance, BacterialAnimalsAnti-Bacterial AgentsATP-Binding Cassette, Sub-Family C ProteinsBacterial ProteinsBenzalkonium CompoundsChlorhexidineDisease Models, AnimalDrug Evaluation, PreclinicalMembrane Transport ProteinsMicrobial Sensitivity TestsMothsMutationPhenotypePromoter Regions, GeneticQuaternary Ammonium CompoundsAnti-Bacterial AgentsATP-Binding Cassette, Sub-Family C ProteinsBacterial ProteinsBenzalkonium CompoundsChlorhexidineMembrane Transport ProteinsNorA protein, StaphylococcusqacA protein, Staphylococcus aureusQuaternary Ammonium Compounds

Identifiers

PMID23669380
PMCPMC3719693
OpenAlexW2128106975

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.