Research progress on heteroresistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Abstract:

Heteroresistance refers to the different susceptibilities of homologous bacterial subgroups to an antibiotic,which is considered as the intermediate stage of bacterial evolution from susceptibility to resistance.Conventional clinical tests cannot effectively detect heteroresistance,which poses a serious threat to clinical treatment and medication,resulting in repeated infection and medication failure of patients.Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the main opportunistic pathogens causing nosocomial infection.Despite the extensive research on the drug resistance mechanism of P. aeruginosa,the studies about the heteroresistance of this bacterium are rare.In this review,we summarized the related studies about the heteroresistance of P. aeruginosa and expounded the phenotypic characteristics,mechanism,and detection methods of heteroresistance.

Key words:Pseudomonas aeruginosa;heteroresistance;biofilm