The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases considers antimicrobial resistance to be the number one long term infectious disease problem in the U.S. Bacteria such as Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, and Acinetobacter are presently resistant to all therapy except for the polymyxins, but polymyxin resistance has been reported as well. New antibiotics are not being developed rapidly. One approach to help combat resistance is to determine potential synergy with the use of two or more presently available agents, but doing so would not have practical value in caring for very sick patients unless the synergy could be determined quickly.
Contact Information
Dr. George Pankey
gpankey@ochsner.org
Our Vision/Goals
The goal of the Infectious Disease Translational Research Laboratory is to develop rapid diagnostic methods for the determination of synergy or antagonism between two or more antimicrobial agents against multidrug-resistant bacteria and fungi. We developed an Etest® methodology that is very promising in this regard. Our research also involves evaluation of rapid diagnostic testing for direct-from-blood organisms and resistance genes.
Current Studies
The laboratory is equipped with a Vitek® 2 instrument (which performs rapid automated identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of bacteria and fungi). An Eddy Jet Spiral plater with a Sphere Flash automated colony counter are used for time-kill studies to determine interactions between antimicrobial agents, along with the Etest and checkerboard methods. Recent synergy studies include: omadacycline or doxycycline in combination with sulbactam against carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii; cefazolin plus ertapenem against methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus; piperacillin-tazobactam plus meropenem against carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter cloacae; nisin plus polymyxin B against pan drug-resistant A. baumannii; fosfomycin or lefamulin plus doxycycline against linezolid-resistant, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium; and fosfomycin plus meropenem against metallo-ß-lactamase producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The laboratory is also involved in the study of how quickly bacteria are killed by antibiotics and non-antibiotics with antibacterial activity.
Ashcraft DS, Vortisch RH, Pankey GA. Evaluation of Synergy with Piperacillin/tazobactam plus Meropenem against Carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter cloacae using ETEST. Poster presentation at IDWeek 2021 Virtual Conference, abstr. 1292, Sept. 29, 2021.
Jahan S, Davis H, Ashcraft D, Pankey G. 2020. Evaluation of the in vitro interaction of fosfomycin and meropenem against metallo-β-lactamase producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa using Etest® and time-kill assay. J Investig Med. 2021 Feb;69(2):371-376. https://doi.org/10.1136/jim-2020-001573
Thomas VM, Brown RM, Ashcraft DS, Pankey GA. 2019. Synergistic effect between nisin and polymyxin B against pandrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 53:663-668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2019.03.009
Davis H, Brown R, Ashcraft D, Pankey G. 2020. In Vitro Synergy with Fosfomycin Plus Doxycycline Against Linezolid and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium. J Global Antimicrob Resist.;22:78-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgar.2020.01.014
Candida species are the fourth most common cause of health care-associated bloodstream infections in the US (2015), with Candida albicans predominating. However, at Ochsner since 2010, Candida glabrata has been the most common species. C. glabrata is more resistant to certain antifungals, creating a concern regarding appropriate therapy. The Infectious Disease research laboratory is performing antifungal susceptibility testing on these bloodstream isolates. Specific aims of the study include determining if there is a trend in Candida species isolated more frequently from the blood and if any antifungal resistance is developing. We will determine if there is any effect of the time of diagnosis and time of initial antifungal therapy on mortality of patients with Candida bloodstream infections. This study will provide useful information that may improve treatments for future patients. Synergy studies include fluconazole plus polymyxin B or doxycycline or tigecycline or caspofungin against C. glabrata; and fluconazole plus polymyxin B or trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole against Candida auris.
Hooper RW, Ashcraft DS, Pankey GA. 2018. In vitro synergy with fluconazole plus doxycycline or tigecycline against clinical Candida glabrata isolates. Med Mycol. Mar:1-5. https://doi.org/10.1093/mmy/myy008
Adams EK, Ashcraft DS, Pankey GA. 2016. In vitro Synergistic Activity of Caspofungin Plus Polymyxin B Against Fluconazole-Resistant Candida glabrata. Am J Med Sciences. Mar:351(3):265-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjms.2015.12.014
Pankey G, Ashcraft D, Kahn H, Ismail A. 2014. Time-kill assay and Etest evaluation for synergy with polymyxin B and fluconazole against Candida glabrata. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. Oct;58(10):5795-800. https://doi.org/10.1128/AAC.03035-14
The Infectious Disease research laboratory has a T2MR® instrument (T2Dx®, T2 Biosystems) that will rapidly detect Candida spp. and 90% of deadly ESKAPEc pathogens (E. faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli) in the blood in 3-5 hrs. This will enable early and more appropriate treatment decisions since identification from blood culture often requires days. Our laboratory was one of 11 U.S. acute care hospitals who participated in the clinical trial for the T2Bacteria Panel, FDA-cleared in 2018.
In 2021, the laboratory conducted an investigator sponsored single-center pilot study for the T2Resistance® Panel (RUO). The panel detects 13 resistance genes from both gram-positive and gram-negative pathogens directly from blood in 3-5 hrs, compared to standard blood culture with susceptibility testing in 3-4 days. The study demonstrated that the T2Resistance Panel has the potential to significantly improve current diagnostic testing.
In 2022, the laboratory was one of 10 U.S. hospitals who participated in the T2Resistance Clinical Trial. The laboratory also served as a testing site for the T2Biothreat® Panel which detects 6 biothreat pathogens: Bacillus anthracis, Francisella tularensis, Burkholderia spp., Yersinia pestis, and Rickettsia prowazekii.
Other products available with this T2MR technology include the T2Cauris® Panel (RUO), which detects the rapidly emerging multidrug-resistant C. auris in skin and blood, in addition to hospital environmental samples in <5 hrs and the T2SARS-CoV-2® Panel, designed for direct detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2 in upper respiratory specimens in <2 hrs.
St Pierre J, Ashcraft D, Davis H, Scariano S, Latsis M, Vortisch R, Mason T, Smith S, Pankey G. Evaluation of the Diagnostic Accuracy of the T2Resistance® Panel in Patients with Bacterial Bloodstream Infections. Poster presentation at the ASM Microbe Meeting, Washington, DC, June 12, 2022.
Voigt C, Silbert S, Widen RH, Marturano JE, Lowery TJ, Ashcraft D, Pankey G. 2020. The T2Bacteria Assay Is a Sensitive and Rapid Detector of Bacteremia That Can Be Initiated in the Emergency Department and Has Potential to Favorably Influence Subsequent Therapy. J Emerg Med May;58(5):785-796. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemermed.2019.11.028 Epub 2020 Jan PMID: 31982197
M. Hong Nguyen, MD; Cornelius J. Clancy, MD; A. William Pasculle, ScD; Peter G. Pappas, MD; George Alangaden, MD; George A. Pankey, MD; Bryan H. Schmitt, DO; Altaf Rasool, MD; Melvin P. Weinstein, MD; Raymond Widen, MD; Diana R. Hernandez, PhD; Donna M. Wolk, PhD; Thomas J. Walsh, MD; John R. Perfect, MD; Mollie N. Wilson, MS; and Eleftherios Mylonakis, MD. Performance of the T2Bacteria Panel for Diagnosing Bloodstream Infections. A Diagnostic Accuracy Study. 2019. Ann Intern Med. https://doi.org/10.7326/M18-2772
The Infectious Disease research laboratory continues to collect and bank bacterial and fungal isolates from blood cultures—as well as unusual or multidrug-resistant isolates from other specimen sources. Over 35,000 isolates are available for use in future studies. This research laboratory serves as a reference laboratory to the Ochsner diagnostic microbiology laboratory to expand testing capabilities on patients’ cultures and as a teaching laboratory for undergraduate and medical students, residents, and fellows interested in Infectious Disease translational research.
The laboratory also is a regional site for the collection of bacterial and fungal isolates for the SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Program for USA/Core Lab, representing the SW region of the U.S. Element Iowa City (formerly JMI Laboratories), North Liberty, IA.
SENTRY Program Participating Sites (1997–2016)
Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Volume 6, Issue Supplement_1, March 2019, Pages S95–S102, https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofz058
Rose R, Feehan A, Lain BN, Ashcraft D, Nolan DJ, Velez-Climent L, Huston C, LaFleur T, Rosentahl S, Fogel GB, Miele L, Pankey G, Garcia-Diaz J, Lamers SL. Whole-genome sequencing of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales isolates in southeast Louisiana reveals persistent genetic clusters spanning multiple locations. J Infect Public Health. 2023 Dec;16(12):1911-1917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph... Epub 2023 Oct 11. PMID: 37866269.
For more information, please contact Dr. George Pankey (gpankey@ochsner.org).
