The in vitro activity of beta-lactamase inhibitors in combination with cephalosporins against M. tuberculosis.

Although there are reports that the addition of a beta-lactamase inhibitor to ampicillin or amoxicillin greatly improves their in vitro activity against M. tuberculosis, there are no written reports about the antituberculosis effects of beta-lactamase inhibitors in combination with cephalosporins against M. tuberculosis. In this report, we have determined the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 5 cephalosporins with or without combination with beta-lactamase inhibitor against M. tuberculosis strains isolated from patients before antituberculosis treatment and checked the production of beta-lactamase by bacteria before this procedure. Four strains of M. tuberculosis were contaminated during the experiment, and all the other 16 strains hydrolyzed the nitrocefin disc, thus indicating a beta-lactamase producer. The MICs of cephalosporins alone against M. tuberculosis were 200-400 micrograms/ml for ceforanide, 100-400 micrograms/ml for cephapirin, 400-1600 micrograms/ml for cefamandole, 200-1600 micrograms/ml for cefotaxime, and 800-1600 micrograms/ml for ceftriaxone. After adding the equimolar concentrations of sulbactam, the MICs were reduced to 100-200 micrograms/ml for ceforanide, 12.5-100 micrograms/ml for cephapirin, 100-400 micrograms/ml for cefamandole, 25-200 micrograms/ml for cefotaxime, and 100-800 micrograms/ml for ceftriaxone. We concluded that sulbactam enhanced the antituberculosis effect of cephalosporins.