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. 1987 Apr;31(4):531–534. doi: 10.1128/aac.31.4.531

Inhibition of R-plasmid transfer in Escherichia coli by 4-quinolones.

J Weisser, B Wiedemann
PMCID: PMC174772  PMID: 3300531

Abstract

Inhibition of transfer of four conjugative R plasmids by ciprofloxacin, enoxacin, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, and pipemidic acid was investigated in an Escherichia coli mating system. The absolute concentrations needed for inhibition of conjugation varied from 0.12 microgram/ml for ciprofloxacin to 16 micrograms/ml for pipemidic acid, but the relationship to the MICs for the parent strains was identical for all substrates. Concentrations for a 90% reduction of transconjugants were in the range of one to six times the MIC for the parent strains, which also had lethal effects on donors and recipients. A similar effect on conjugation was found with chloramphenicol. These observations question the specificity of transfer inhibition by quinolones and cast doubt on the clinical importance of such an effect.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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