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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Nanomechanics of Drug-target Interactions and Antibacterial Resistance Detection
Published on: October 25, 2013
Vancomycin-resistant enterococcal bacteraemia: is daptomycin as effective as linezolid?
Vidya Mave1, Julia Garcia-Diaz, Tareq Islam
1Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Daptomycin showed similar effectiveness to linezolid in treating vancomycin-resistant enterococcal (VRE) bacteraemia, despite a trend towards higher mortality and longer infection duration. Further randomized trials are needed to confirm these findings for VRE treatment.
Area of Science:
- Infectious Diseases
- Clinical Microbiology
- Pharmacology
Background:
- Vancomycin-resistant enterococcal (VRE) bacteraemia presents significant treatment challenges.
- Daptomycin is a promising bactericidal antibiotic for VRE, but clinical evidence is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the efficacy of daptomycin versus linezolid in treating VRE bacteraemia.
- To evaluate microbiological and clinical outcomes in patients treated with either antibiotic.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective study of 98 adult patients with VRE bacteraemia.
- Comparison of daptomycin (30 patients) and linezolid (68 patients) treatment groups.
- Multivariable analyses to assess outcomes.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in baseline characteristics between groups.
- Similar microbiological cure rates: 90% for daptomycin vs. 88.2% for linezolid.
- Trends towards higher mortality (26.7% vs. 20.6%) and longer bacteraemia duration (3 vs. 2 days) with daptomycin, not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
- Daptomycin demonstrated comparable efficacy to linezolid in VRE bacteraemia treatment.
- A trend towards worse outcomes with daptomycin warrants further investigation.
- Randomized clinical trials are necessary to definitively establish daptomycin's role in VRE treatment.
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