Abstract

Enterobacteriaceae is a large and heterogeneous group of Gram-negative bacilli that are routinely isolated in the clinical laboratory and are associated with a large number of clinical conditions. Those resistant to last-line antibiotics, such as carbapenems, represent a great challenge in health-care centers. Given the difficulty in treating this type of infections, the use of old drugs such as colistin, nitrofurantoin and fosfomycin has been studied. The objective of this work is to detail the main resistance mechanisms described in Enterobacteriaceae for these three antibiotics. To do this, a survey of scientific articles from the years 1999 to 2022 was carried out using databases such as PubMed (NCBI), Google Scholar, PLOS, Redalyc and Science Direct. In this process, keywords “Carbapenem- Resistant Enterobacteriaceae”, “colistin”, nitrofurantoin”, “fosfomycin”, “resistance” and “plasmids” were used. Resistance mechanisms were found to be varied and involve phenomena such as target site modification, enzyme inactivation, impermeability, and efflux. In addition, the genetic determinants of resistance are found at the chromosomal level or in plasmids. Knowing this type of information makes it possible to improve laboratory-based surveillance, fight the problem of resistance to antibiotics and take care of these antibiotics, which are part of the scarce arsenal for the treatment of certain infections caused by multidrug-resistant microorganisms.

Keywords: Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae; colistin; nitrofurantoin; fosfomycin; plasmids