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Updated: Jul 26, 2026

Experimental Endocarditis Model of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Rat
Published on: June 4, 2012
Lysostaphin treatment of experimental aortic valve endocarditis caused by a Staphylococcus aureus isolate with
R L Patron1, M W Climo, B P Goldstein
1Department of Internal Medicine, Medical College of Virginia Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Richmond 23249, USA.
Abstract:
The rabbit model of endocarditis was used to test the effectiveness of vancomycin and two different lysostaphin dosing regimens for the treatment of infections caused by a Staphylococcus aureus strain with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin (glycopeptide-intermediate susceptible S. aureus [GISA]). Vancomycin was ineffective, with no evidence of sterilization of aortic valve vegetations. However, rates of sterilization of aortic valve vegetations were significantly better for animals treated with either a single dose of lysostaphin (43%) or lysostaphin given twice daily for 3 days (83%) than for animals treated with vancomycin. Rabbits given a single dose of lysostaphin followed by a 3-day drug-free period had mean reductions in aortic valve vegetation bacterial counts of 7.27 and 6.63 log10 CFU/g compared with those for untreated control rabbits and the vancomycin-treated group, respectively. We conclude that lysostaphin is an effective alternative for the treatment of experimental aortic valve endocarditis caused by a clinical VISA strain.
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