Sulbactam-Durlobactam, A Novel Drug for the Treatment of Multidrug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Infections - A...

Sulbactam-durlobactam (SUL-DUR) has been tested in vitro for its ability to generate resistance in clinical isolates of Acinetobacter species. According to prior studies, combining durlobactam with sulbactam causes sulbactam-resistant isolates to become more active and revert to susceptibility. We aimed to conduct a systematic review of the in vitro activity of SUL-DUR on A. baumannii (Ab) isolates, including carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii (CRAb), to provide an overview for physicians dealing with Ab infections.

The following keywords were searched in the PubMed, Google Scholar, and EMBASE databases to look for eligible original works that have been published without restrictions till June 30, 2023: A. baumannii and sulbactam-durlobactam, SUL-DUR, durlobactam, and sulbactam-ETX2514. We also searched clinicaltrials.gov and the Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI) for clinical trials involving sulbactamdurlobactam and Acinetobacter.

There were a total of 852 abstracts found. Among them, 633 articles with titles, abstracts, and keywords were reviewed, and 574 articles were removed after the initial screening. A total of 59 full-text eligible articles were evaluated, and 51 of them were eliminated because they did not satisfy the criteria set for inclusion. The full texts of the final 8 in vitro studies on A. baumanii and sulbactam/durlobactam were further evaluated. There were 5 trials on A. baumanii and sulbactam/durlobactam found on clinicaltrials.gov and the Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI).

The findings from the studies show that SUL-DUR might be a successful therapeutic option for multidrug-resistant-Ab infections. Future clinical trials will be required to validate the possibility of using this combination to treat multidrug-resistant A. baumannii infections.