Searching for the Optimal Predictor of Ciprofloxacin Resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae by Using In Vitro Dynamic Models

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is growing evidence of applicability of the hypothesis of the mutant selection window (MSW), i.e., the range between the MIC and the mutant prevention concentration (MPC), within which the enrichment of resistant mutants is most probable. However, it is not clear if MPC-based pharmacokinetic variables are preferable to the respective MIC-based variables as interstrain predictors of resistance. To examine the predictive power of the ratios of the area under the curve (AUC 24 ) to the MPC and to the MIC, the selection of ciprofloxacin-resistant mutants of three Klebsiella pneumoniae strains with different MPC/MIC ratios was studied. Each organism was exposed to twice-daily ciprofloxacin for 3 days at AUC 24 /MIC ratios that provide peak antibiotic concentrations close to the MIC, between the MIC and the MPC, and above the MPC. Resistant K. pneumoniae mutants were intensively enriched at an AUC 24 /MIC ratio of 60 to 360 h (AUC 24 /MPC ratio from 2.5 to 15 h) but not at the lower or higher AUC 24 /MIC and AUC 24 /MPC ratios, in accordance with the MSW hypothesis. AUC 24 /MPC and AUC 24 /MIC relationships with areas under the time courses of ciprofloxacin-resistant K. pneumoniae (AUBC M ) were bell shaped. These relationships predict highly variable “antimutant” AUC 24 /MPC ratios (20 to 290 h) compared to AUC 24 /MIC ratios (1,310 to 2,610 h). These findings suggest that the potential of the AUC 24 /MPC ratio as an interstrain predictor of K. pneumoniae resistance is lower than that of the AUC 24 /MIC ratio.