Temporin A Soaking in Combination with Intraperitoneal Linezolid Prevents Vascular Graft Infection in a Subcutaneous Rat Pouch Model of Infection with Staphylococcus epidermidis with Intermediate Resistance to Glycopeptides

The efficacy of linezolid and temporin A in the prevention of prosthetic graft infection due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis with intermediate resistance to glycopeptides was investigated in a sub-cutaneous rat pouch model. Linezolid and temporin A, alone or combined, greatly reduced the bacterial numbers compared to the effect with control drugs. In recent years the effectiveness of new antimicrobial com-pounds to treat and prevent vascular graft infections has been evaluated in different experimental models (1, 3, 7, 14, 17). In fact, vascular graft infections remain a major surgical chal-lenge, because prevention of risk factors and antibiotic therapy can reduce but not eradicate them (4, 8). Moreover, the con-tinued isolation of methicillin-resistant staphylococci and the increase in the numbers of infections caused by the emergence of glycopeptide-resistant cocci among nosocomial strains have prompted the development of compounds specifically directed at the treatment of these pathogens (9, 13, 15, 16)