Research progress of heteroresistance of Acinetobacter baumannii

Abstract:

Heteroresistance refers to various susceptibility to a particular antimicrobial agents exhibited by different subpopulations of bacteria, which has been reported frequently in the vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus. In recent years, this phenomenon has been revealed in gram-negative bacteria, such as Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and it is gradually recognized that this may be one of the causes for the failure of anti-infective treatment. Once heteroresistance occurs, even a small part of subpopulations of drug-resistant bacteria can exhibit high level phenotypic resistance under the selective pressure of antimicrobial agents, which leads to the failure of clinical antimicrobial anti-infective therapy. Heteroresistance reflects the transformation of bacterial population from partial drug resistance to complete drug resistance. Research on heteroresistance is of great significance for understanding the development process of drug resistance of common clinical pathogens, evaluating treatment options and guiding clinical antimicrobial use. In this paper, the research status of heteroresistance of Acinetobacter baumannii is reviewed.