Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (4): 1432-1445.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2024.04.009

• REVIEW • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research Progress in Heteroresistance of Staphylococcus aureus

HE Xiaolan1, ZHAO Yankun1,2, MENG Lu1, LIU Huimin1, GAO Jiaojiao2, ZHENG Nan1*   

  1. 1. Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China;
    2. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs-Laboratory of Quality and Safety Risk Assessment for Agro-Products(Urumgi), Key Laboratory of Agro-Products Quality and Safety of Xinjiang, Institute of Quality Standards & Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi 830091, China
  • Received:2023-07-10 Online:2024-04-23 Published:2024-04-26

Abstract: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a common cause of infection in humans and animals. In recent years, S. aureus has become resistant to a variety of antimicrobial drugs, and studies on heteroresistance in S. aureus have been frequently reported. The broadest definition of heteroresistance is the presence of a heterogeneous population of bacteria with one subpopulation or several subpopulations that exhibit increased levels of antibiotic resistance compared with the main population. However, this definition includes phenomena with very different characteristics; for example, clonality of resistant subpopulations, the stability of the resistant subpopulations, the resistance level of the resistant subpopulations, and at a frequency greater than 1×10-7. Heteroresistance is the intermediate stage of sensitive bacteria evolving into drug-resistant bacteria, which often leads to the failure of clinical therapy. This paper introduces the definition of heteroresistance, detection methods, etc., and reviews the prevalence of heteroresistance of S. aureus to glycopeptides, sulfonamides, β-lactams, and other antibacterial agents and the study of the mechanism of heteroresistance. It is aimed to strengthen the understanding on the heteroresistance of S. aureus, and to provide a reference for scholars to understand the prevalence and mechanism of heteroresistance of S. aureus.

Key words: Staphylococcus aureus, heteroresistance, antibiotics, prevalence, mechanism

CLC Number: