How does efflux cause antibiotic resistance?
Drug efflux is a key mechanism of resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. These systems pump solutes out of the cell. Efflux pumps allow the microorganisms to regulate their internal environment by removing toxic substances, including antimicrobial agents, metabolites and quorum sensing signal molecules.
What are the three major categories of antimicrobial resistance mechanisms?
The three fundamental mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance are (1) enzymatic degradation of antibacterial drugs, (2) alteration of bacterial proteins that are antimicrobial targets, and (3) changes in membrane permeability to antibiotics.
What do efflux transporters do?
Efflux transporters prevent fluorescent dyes from entering the cytoplasm and provide a simple means of assaying activity.
What is efflux pump in bacteria?
Efflux pumps are membrane proteins that are involved in the export of noxious substances from within the bacterial cell into the external environment. They are found in all species of bacteria, and efflux pump genes can be found in bacterial chromosomes or mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids.
What is the role of efflux pumps in antibiotic resistance?
Multidrug resistance (MDR) pumps play an important role in the antibiotic resistance of planktonic P. aeruginosa. This microorganism presents several putative MDR efflux pump encoding genes belonging to the RND family of bacterial transporters.
How are drug specific efflux mechanisms related to drug resistance?
In contrast, drug-specific efflux mechanisms are generally encoded by plasmids and/or other mobile genetic elements (transposons, integrons) that carry additional resistance genes, and so their ready acquisition is compounded by their association with multidrug resistance.
How is biocide resistance related to antibiotic resistance?
Antibiotic resistance continues to plague antimicrobial chemotherapy of infectious disease. And while true biocide resistance is as yet unrealized, in vitro and in vivo episodes of reduced biocide susceptibility are common and the history of antibiotic resistance should not be ignored in the development and use of biocidal agents.
Is there a Gram negative multidrug efflux system?
While the emphasis is on the clinical relevance of efflux mechanisms of resistance, the probable role of Gram-negative multidrug efflux systems in other cellular processes is also addressed. The interested reader is referred to recent reviews of antimicrobial 37 and multidrug 37 – 41 efflux for additional information.