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Linezolid-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from 2006 through 2008 at six hospitals in Japan

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy

Abstract

Limited use of linezolid for treating methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection was approved in Japan in 2006. We report here the status of linezolid-resistant MRSAs in Japan. Eleven linezolid-resistant clinical isolates from 11 patients at six hospitals were collected from 2006 through 2008. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of linezolid in these strains varied from 8 to 64 μg/ml. All strains had at least one G2576T mutation in the chromosomal gene(s) encoding domain V of the 23S ribosomal RNA (rRNA). Chromosomal DNA encoding five copies of the domain V region was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Strains with the linezolid MICs of 64, 32, 16, and 8 μg/ml had the G2576T mutation(s) in four, three (or four), two, and one copy of the 23S rRNA genes, respectively. These results suggest that the level of linezolid resistance seems to be roughly correlated with the number of mutations in the genes encoding 23S rRNA. DNA samples from all 11 strains were subjected to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and were classified into seven independent clones having >92% identity. Among the 11 patients, five had been treated with linezolid and the remainder, in two hospitals, had no history of prior linezolid use. The results suggested possible nosocomial infections by linezolid-resistant MRSA.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by a grant-in-aid from the Food Safety Commission, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Anti-infectious Drugs, Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences, Kitasato University, 5-9-1 Shirokane, Minato-Ku, Tokyo, 108-8641, Japan

    Yurika Ikeda-Dantsuji, Hideaki Hanaki, Fuminori Sakai, Chie Yanagisawa & Taiji Nakae

  2. Graduate School of Infection Control Sciences, Kitasato University, Tokyo, Japan

    Fuminori Sakai

  3. Department of Clinical Infectious Disease, Osaka University School of Medicine, Suita, Osaka, Japan

    Kazunori Tomono

  4. Department of Infection Control and Prevention, Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan

    Yoshio Takesue

  5. Department of Infection Control, St. Mary’s Hospital, Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan

    Junichi Honda

  6. Central Clinical Laboratory, Iwate Medical University Hospital, Morioka, Iwate, Japan

    Yuriko Nonomiya & Akira Suwabe

  7. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan

    Osanori Nagura

  8. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan

    Katsunori Yanagihara

  9. Department of Infection Control and Prevention, Aichi Medical University, Aichi, Aichi, Japan

    Hiroshige Mikamo

  10. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Kunihiko Fukuchi

  11. Department of Infection Control and Laboratory Diagnostics, Internal Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

    Mitsuo Kaku

  12. The Second Department of Internal Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan

    Shigeru Kohno

  13. Department of Clinical Infectious Disease, Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Koichiro Yoshida & Yoshihito Niki

Authors
  1. Yurika Ikeda-Dantsuji
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  2. Hideaki Hanaki
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  3. Fuminori Sakai
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  4. Kazunori Tomono
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  5. Yoshio Takesue
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  6. Junichi Honda
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  7. Yuriko Nonomiya
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  8. Akira Suwabe
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  9. Osanori Nagura
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  10. Katsunori Yanagihara
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  11. Hiroshige Mikamo
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  12. Kunihiko Fukuchi
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  13. Mitsuo Kaku
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  14. Shigeru Kohno
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  15. Chie Yanagisawa
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  16. Taiji Nakae
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  17. Koichiro Yoshida
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  18. Yoshihito Niki
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hideaki Hanaki.

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Ikeda-Dantsuji, Y., Hanaki, H., Sakai, F. et al. Linezolid-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from 2006 through 2008 at six hospitals in Japan. J Infect Chemother 17, 45–51 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10156-010-0085-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10156-010-0085-1

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