Carbonic anhydrase inhibition as a target for antibiotic synergy in enterococci

Enterococcus faecalis is a hospital-associated opportunistic pathogen that can cause infections with high mortality, such as infective endocarditis. With an increasing occurrence of multidrug-resistant enterococci, there is a need for alternative treatment strategies to treat enterococcal infections. We isolated a gentamicin-hypersusceptible E. faecalis strain from a patient with infective endocarditis that was found to carry a mutation in the alpha-carbonic anhydrase (alpha-CA), and investigated how disruption of alpha-CA sensitized E. faecalis to killing with gentamicin.

粪肠球菌（Enterococcus faecalis）是一种医院相关性机会致病菌，可引发感染性心内膜炎等高致死性感染。随着多重耐药肠球菌的检出率不断升高，临床亟需开发治疗肠球菌感染的新型替代治疗策略。我们从一名感染性心内膜炎患者体内分离得到一株庆大霉素高敏感的粪肠球菌菌株，该菌株被证实携带α碳酸酐酶（alpha-carbonic anhydrase, α-CA）的突变，并探究了α碳酸酐酶功能缺失如何使粪肠球菌对庆大霉素的杀菌作用更为敏感。