A pharmacodynamic simulation to assess tigecycline efficacy for hospital-acquired pneumonia compared with other common intravenous antibiotics

Clinical outcomes of tigecycline alone or in combination with other antimicrobial agents for the treatment of patients with healthcare-associated multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infections

Tigecycline (TG) has been shown to be active in vitro against Acinetobacter baumannii, although data on the clinical efficacy of TG alone or in combination for the treatment of infections due to multidrug-resistant A. baumannii (MDRAB) remain limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical outcomes of patients with healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) caused by MDRAB who were treated with imipenem/cilastatin and sulbactam, and TG alone or in combination with other antibiotics. A total of 386 patients with HAIs caused by MDRAB were retrospectively analyzed and grouped into TG and non-TG groups, depending on whether they received TG treatment. Of the 266 patients in the TG group, 108 were treated with TG alone and 158 were treated with TG in combination with ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, piperacillin/tazobactam, or a carbapenem. All 120 patients in the non-TG group were treated with imipenem/cilastatin and sulbactam. The primary outcome measure was 30-day mortality after TG treatment and the secondary outcome was clinical outcome. There were no significant differences in survival rates between the two groups. However, the rate of unfavorable outcome was significantly lower (p < 0.05) among patients in the TG group than among patients in the non-TG group. The most significant predictor of unfavorable outcome was sepsis, whereas TG treatment and microbial eradication were the most significant predictors of favorable outcomes. Our study represents the largest study of patients with MDRAB infection treated with TG and expands our understanding of the role of TG therapy alone or in combination with other agents for the treatment of HAI caused by MDRAB.

Comparison of tigecycline with imipenem/cilastatin for the treatment of hospital-acquired pneumonia

To compare efficacy and safety of a tigecycline regimen with an imipenem/cilastatin regimen in hospital-acquired pneumonia patients, a phase 3, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, study evaluated 945 patients. Coprimary end points were clinical response in clinically evaluable (CE) and clinical modified intent-to-treat (c-mITT) populations at test-of-cure. Cure rates were 67.9% for tigecycline and 78.2% for imipenem (CE patients) and 62.7% and 67.6% (c-mITT patients), respectively. A statistical interaction occurred between ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and non-VAP subgroups, with significantly lower cure rates in tigecycline VAP patients compared to imipenem; in non-VAP patients, tigecycline was noninferior to imipenem. Overall mortality did not differ between the tigecycline (14.1%) and imipenem regimens (12.2%), although more deaths occurred in VAP patients treated with tigecycline than imipenem. Overall, the tigecycline regimen was noninferior to the imipenem/cilastatin regimen for the c-mITT but not the CE population; this difference appears to have been driven by results in VAP patients.

In vivo pharmacodynamic profile of tigecycline against phenotypically diverse Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates

Tigecycline is a glycylcycline with activity against Enterobacteriaceae, including multidrug-resistant isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli producing extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) and carbapenemases. Herein, we used an in vivo murine thigh model to characterize the pharmacodynamic profile of tigecycline against genotypically and phenotypically diverse K. pneumoniae and E. coli isolates. Doses of 3.125 to 300 mg/kg, divided 1 to 6 times daily, were administered subcutaneously against six (two nonresistant, one carbapenemase, and three ESBL producing) K. pneumoniae strains and five (two nonresistant and three ESBL producing) E. coli strains. The phenotypic profile (reported tigecycline MIC) for all isolates ranged from 0.125 to 2 microg/ml. Mean correlation coefficients of free (f) drug exposures (percentage of the dosing interval that free drug concentration remained above the MIC [fT>MIC], the ratio of the free drug area under the concentration-time curve/MIC [fAUC/MIC], and the ratio of maximum concentration of free drug in serum/MIC) for all 11 isolates were 0.595, 0.969, and 0.897, respectively. The fAUC/MIC was the pharmacodynamic parameter that best described the efficacy of tigecycline against both E. coli and K. pneumoniae. Interestingly, reductions in the number of CFU were noted even though doses achieved an fT>MIC of 0%. With respect to fAUC/MIC in the neutropenic model, the cumulative 80% and 50% effective pharmacodynamic indexes (EI(80) and EI(50)) for all 11 isolates were 8.4 and 4.7, respectively. An experiment in nonneutropenic mice infected with an ESBL-producing E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolate resulted in the lowest tigecycline fAUC/MIC EI(80) and EI(50) values at 1.8 and 1.0 for E. coli and 1.7 and 1.6 for K. pneumoniae. While the phenotypic profile of tigecycline appeared to drive efficacy irrespective of ESBL or carbapenemase production, the presence of a competent immune system markedly reduced this required exposure.