{"id":3919,"date":"2017-07-20T11:42:04","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T10:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/?p=3919"},"modified":"2017-07-20T11:42:04","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T10:42:04","slug":"mrsa-emerged-years-before-methicillin-was-even-discovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/mrsa-emerged-years-before-methicillin-was-even-discovered\/","title":{"rendered":"MRSA emerged years before methicillin was even discovered"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus <\/em>(MRSA) emerged long before the introduction of the antibiotic methicillin into clinical practice, according to researchers at the University of St Andrews.<\/p>\n

A new study, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the University of Dundee, suggests the widespread use of earlier antibiotics such as penicillin rather than of methicillin itself allowed Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus <\/em>(MRSA) to emerge.<\/p>\n

The findings, published in the open access journal Genome Biology, <\/em>found that S. aureus <\/em>acquired the gene that confers methicillin resistance (mecA) <\/em>as early as the mid-1940s, fourteen years before the first use of methicillin.<\/p>\n

Professor Matthew Holden, molecular microbiologist at the University of St Andrews, the corresponding author said:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur study provides important lessons for future efforts to combat antibiotic resistance. It shows that new drugs which are introduced to circumvent known resistance mechanisms, as methicillin was in 1959, can be rendered ineffective by unrecognized, pre-existing adaptations in the bacterial population.\u00a0 These adaptations happen because, in response to exposure to earlier antibiotics, resistant bacterial strains are selected instead of non-resistant ones as bacteria evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mecA <\/em>gene confers resistance by producing a protein called PBP2a, which decreases the binding efficiency of antibiotics used against S. aureus <\/em>to the bacterial cell wall.\u00a0 The introduction of penicillin in the 1940s led to the selection of S. aureus <\/em>strains that carried the methicillin resistance gene.<\/p>\n

Dr Catriona Harkins, clinical lecturer in dermatology at the University of Dundee, the first author of the study said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin a year of methicillin being first introduced to circumvent penicillin resistance, strains of S. aureus <\/em>were found that were already resistant to methicillin.\u00a0 In the years that followed resistance spread rapidly in and outside of the UK.\u00a0 Five decades on from the appearance of the first MRSA, multiple MRSA lineages have emerged which have acquired different variants of the resistance gene.\u201d<\/p>\n

To uncover the origins of the very first MRSA and to trace its evolutionary history, the researchers sequenced the genomes of a unique collection of 209 historic S. aureus isolates.\u00a0 The oldest of these isolates were identified over 50 years ago by the S. aureus reference laboratory of Public Health England and have been stored ever since in their original freeze-dried state.\u00a0 The researchers also found genes in these isolates that confer resistance to numerous other antibiotics, as well as genes associated with decreased susceptibility to disinfectants.<\/p>\n

Professor Holden said:<\/p>\n

\u201cS. aureus has proven to be particularly adept at developing resistance in the face of new antibiotic challenges, rendering many antibiotics ineffective.\u00a0 This remains one of the many challenges in tackling the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance.\u00a0 In order to ensure that future antibiotics retain their effectiveness for as long as possible, it is essential that effective surveillance mechanisms are combined with the use of genome sequencing to scan for the emergence and spread of resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Background information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor Holden is available for interview via the Communications Office \u2013 contacts below.<\/p>\n

St Andrews has an in-house ISDN line for radio and a Globelynx camera for TV interviews.\u00a0 To arrange an interview please contact the Communications Office in the first instance.<\/p>\n

Research article<\/strong><\/p>\n

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus emerged long before the introduction of methicillin into clinical practice. Harkins et al Genome Biology <\/em>2017 DOI: 10.1186\/s13059-017-1252-9<\/p>\n

The full article is available at the journal website: https:\/\/genomebiology.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s13059-017-1252-9<\/a><\/p>\n

Genome Biology\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>publishes outstanding research in all areas of biology and biomedicine studied from a genomic and post-genomic perspective.<\/p>\n

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute<\/strong> is one of the world’s leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease. http:\/\/www.sanger.ac.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Issued by the University of St Andrews Communications Office. Contact Christine Tudhope on 01334 467 320 \/ 07526 624 243 or christine.tudhope@st-andrews.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) emerged long before the introduction of the antibiotic methicillin into clinical practice, according to researchers at the University of St Andrews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":3920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[86,301,730,760,914,1153,1183],"class_list":["post-3919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorised","tag-antibiotic-methicillin","tag-dr-catriona-harkins","tag-methicillin-resistant-staphylococcus-aureus","tag-mrsa","tag-prof-matt-holden","tag-university-of-dundee","tag-wellcome-trust-sanger-institute"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 01:54:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}