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Antibiotics
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Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae: Three...
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Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae: Three Major Causes of Bacterial Meningitis: Antibiotic Treatment, Sequelae and Microbial Resistance

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 4319

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Athanasia Xirogianni

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Guest Editor
National Meningitis Reference Laboratory, Department of Public Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of West Attica, 11521 Athens, Greece
Interests: infectious disease epidemiology; microbiology; antimicrobials; antibiotic resistance
Prof. Dr. Georgina Tzanakaki

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Meningitis Reference Laboratory, Department of Public Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
Interests: Neisseria meningitidis; Spreptococcus pneumoniae; Haemophilus influenzae; bacterial meningitis; molecular diagnosis; outbreak investigation; laboratory surveillance; Public Health Microbiology, meningococcal and pneumococcal vaccines
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae are the major causes of bacterial meningitis worldwide.

The incidence of bacterial meningitis has decreased following conjugate vaccine introduction. However, the implementation of vaccines may result in the possible replacement of serogroups/serotypes which are not included in the vaccine. Furthermore, potential changes in antibiotic resistance of causative agents and the emergence of new strains enhance the need for continuous monitoring of the epidemiology of the disease.

Early diagnosis and treatment at the onset of the disease are important factors for the disease’s outcome.  Usually, the patients are treated empirically with antibiotics, according to the microorganism causing the infection. Other factors, such as the patient’s age and possible risk factors (due to underlying disease, patient allergies or other simultaneous drug administration) must be taken into consideration for the adjustment of the treatment regimen. Chemoprophylaxis of close contacts is also used for further prevention, in case of invasive meningococcal disease.

During the last years, there is a worldwide increasing concern about antibiotic use and the potential consequences, such as the development of microbial resistance against multi-used antibiotics.  As a result, data obtained from local microbial resistance rates research, come to add important information for the therapy that should be used. In some cases, a change in the treatment regimen might be essential or the use of alternative antibiotics. In combination with the other factors discussed above, new therapeutic approaches are proposed for a better outcome.

This Special Issue will publish papers discussing the treatment against meningitis due to N.meningitidis, S. pneumoniae or H.influenzae, as well as antibiotic resistance. 

Dr. Athanasia Xirogianni
Prof. Dr. Georgina Tzanakaki
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bacterial meningitis
  • Neisseria meningitidis
  • therapeutic approaches
  • antimicrobial resistance Streptococcus pneumoniae
  • therapeutic approaches
  • antimicrobial resistance Haemophilus influenzae
  • therapeutic approaches
  • antimicrobial resistance

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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12 pages, 1204 KiB  
Article
Meningococcal Antibiotic Resistance: Molecular Characterization of Isolates from Patients with Invasive Meningococcal Disease (IMD) in Greece
by Ioanna Spiliopoulou, Athanasia Xirogianni, Stelmos Simantirakis and Georgina Tzanakaki
Antibiotics 2023, 12(7), 1136; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12071136 - 30 Jun 2023
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Abstract
For effective case management and chemoprophylaxis of Invasive Meningococcal Disease (IMD), prompt antibiotic treatment is required. N. meningitidis is usually susceptible to antibiotics, but reduced susceptibility to penicillin, ciprofloxacin, and rifampicin is increasing worldwide, jeopardizing patients’ outcome. We assessed, phenotypically and genotypically, the [...] Read more.
For effective case management and chemoprophylaxis of Invasive Meningococcal Disease (IMD), prompt antibiotic treatment is required. N. meningitidis is usually susceptible to antibiotics, but reduced susceptibility to penicillin, ciprofloxacin, and rifampicin is increasing worldwide, jeopardizing patients’ outcome. We assessed, phenotypically and genotypically, the antimicrobial resistance patterns of 192 strains isolated from IMD cases from all over Greece during 2010–2021. Antimicrobial susceptibility to penicillin, rifampicin, and ciprofloxacin was determined using the E-test. All isolates were genotyped by Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST). penA, rpoB, and gyrA genes were amplified by PCR and sequenced. Of the 192 isolates, 37% (72/192) were penicillin-susceptible/had increased exposure, and 11% (21/192) were penicillin-resistant. Among those, 40 penA alleles were identified; penA1, penA27, and penA3 were highly associated with susceptibility to penicillin; penA14, penA25, and penA22 related to reduced susceptibility to penicillin, while penA9, penA910, and penA295 had resistance to penicillin. Two ciprofloxacin-resistant isolates harbored the gyrA346 allele, while one rifampicin-resistant isolate harbored the rpoB5 allele. Resistance to ciprofloxacin and rifampicin remains rare. As Greece is one of the countries with high antimicrobial resistance, continued monitoring of antibiotic resistance is important to ensure timely detection of emerging resistance for treatment and prevention guidelines. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae: Three Major Causes of Bacterial Meningitis: Antibiotic Treatment, Sequelae and Microbial Resistance)
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9 pages, 647 KiB  
Article
Recent Evolution of Susceptibility to Beta-Lactams in Neisseria meningitidis
by Ala-Eddine Deghmane, Eva Hong and Muhamed-Kheir Taha
Antibiotics 2023, 12(6), 992; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12060992 - 1 Jun 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1804
Abstract
Beta-lactams are the main antibiotics for the treatment of invasive meningococcal disease. However, reduced susceptibility to penicillin G is increasingly reported in Neisseria meningitidis and reduced susceptibility to third-generation cephalosporines (3GC) and the rare acquisition of ROB-1 beta-lactamase were also described. Modifications of [...] Read more.
Beta-lactams are the main antibiotics for the treatment of invasive meningococcal disease. However, reduced susceptibility to penicillin G is increasingly reported in Neisseria meningitidis and reduced susceptibility to third-generation cephalosporines (3GC) and the rare acquisition of ROB-1 beta-lactamase were also described. Modifications of penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP2) encoded by the penA gene are the main described mechanism for the reduced susceptibility to penicillin and to other beta-lactams. penA modifications were analyzed using the sequences of all penA genes from cultured isolates between 2017–2021 in France (n = 1255). Data showed an increasing trend of reduced susceptibility to penicillin from 36% in 2017 to 58% in 2021. Reduced susceptibility to 3GC remained limited at 2.4%. We identified 74 different penA alleles and penA1 was the most frequent wild-type allele and represented 29% of all alleles while penA9 was the most frequently altered allele and represented 17% of all alleles. Reduced susceptibility to 3GC was associated with the penA327 allele. The amino acid sequences of wild-type and altered PBP2 were modeled. The critical amino acid substitutions were shown to change access to the active S310 residue and hence hinder the binding of beta-lactams to the active site of PBP2. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae: Three Major Causes of Bacterial Meningitis: Antibiotic Treatment, Sequelae and Microbial Resistance)
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