Antimicrobial susceptibility of commensal Neisseria in a general population and men who have sex with men in Belgium

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 9
• Main Authors: Laumen, Jolein Gyonne Elise, Van Dijck, Christophe, Abdellati, Saïd, De Baetselier, Irith, Serrano, Gabriela, Manoharan-Basil, Sheeba Santhini, Bottieau, Emmanuel, Martiny, Delphine, Kenyon, Chris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 07.01.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/326/22/1434; 631/326/2565/107; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibiotics; Antimicrobial agents; Antimicrobial resistance; Azithromycin; Belgium; Ceftriaxone; Ciprofloxacin; Ciprofloxacin - pharmacology; Drug resistance; Employees; Homosexuality, Male - statistics & numerical data; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Male; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Neisseria; Neisseria - classification; Neisseria - drug effects; Neisseria - genetics; Neisseria - isolation & purification; Oropharynx - microbiology; Penicillins - pharmacology; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Susceptibility; Tetracycline - pharmacology; Belgium
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-03995-1

Non-pathogenic Neisseria are a reservoir of antimicrobial resistance genes for pathogenic Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae . Men who have sex with men (MSM) are at risk of co-colonization with resistant non-pathogenic and pathogenic Neisseria . We assessed if the antimicrobial susceptibility of non-pathogenic Neisseria among MSM differs from a general population and if antimicrobial exposure impacts susceptibility. We recruited 96 participants at our center in Belgium: 32 employees, 32 MSM who did not use antibiotics in the previous 6 months, and 32 MSM who did. Oropharyngeal Neisseria were cultured and identified with MALDI-TOF–MS. Minimum inhibitory concentrations for azithromycin, ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin were determined using E-tests ® and compared between groups with non-parametric tests. Non-pathogenic Neisseria from employees as well as MSM were remarkably resistant. Those from MSM were significantly less susceptible than employees to azithromycin and ciprofloxacin ( p  < 0.0001, p  < 0.001), but not ceftriaxone ( p  = 0.3). Susceptibility did not differ significantly according to recent antimicrobial exposure in MSM. Surveilling antimicrobial susceptibility of non-pathogenic Neisseria may be a sensitive way to assess impact of antimicrobial exposure in a population. The high levels of antimicrobial resistance in this survey indicate that novel resistance determinants may be readily available for future transfer from non-pathogenic to pathogenic Neisseria .