Staphylococcus aureus with an erm-mediated constitutive macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B resistance phenotype has reduced susceptibility to the new ketolide, solithromycin

BACKGROUND: Solithromycin, the fourth generation of ketolides, has been demonstrated potent antibacterial effect against commonly-isolated gram-positive strains. However, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) strains with a higher solithromycin MIC have already been emerged, the mechanism of which is unknown. METHODS: Antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed on 266 strains of S. aureus. The antibiotic resistance phenotype of erm-positive strain was determined by D-zone test. Spontaneous mutation frequency analysis was performed to compare the risk levels for solithromycin resistance among different strains. Efflux pumps and mutational analysis of ribosomal fragments as well as erm(B) gene domains were detected. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was conducted to compare the transcriptional expression of the erm gene between the constitutive macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B (cMLSB)- and inducible MLSB (iMLSB)-phenotypes. RESULTS: In the erm-positive S. aureus strains, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)(50/90) of solithromycin (2/> 16 mg/L) was significantly higher than that in the erm-negative strains (0.125/0.25 mg/L). Of note, the MIC(50) value of the strains with iMLSB (0.25 mg/L) was significantly lower than that of the strains with cMLSB (4 mg/L). A comparison among strains demonstrated that the median mutational frequency in isolates with cMLSB (> 1.2 × 10(− 4)) was approximately > 57-fold and > 3333-fold higher than that in iMLSB strains (2.1 × 10(− 6)) and in erythromycin-sensitive strains (3.6 × 10(− 8)), respectively. The differential antibiotic in vitro activity against strains between cMLSB and iMLSB could not be explained by efflux pump carriers or genetic mutations in the test genes. The expression of the erm genes in strains with cMLSB did not differ from that in strains with iMLSB. CONCLUSIONS: The reduced susceptibility to solithromycin by S. aureus was associated with the cMLSB resistance phenotype mediated by erm. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12879-019-3779-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.