In Vitro Activity of the Ultra-Broad-Spectrum Beta-lactamase Inhibitor QPX7728 in Combination with Multiple Beta-Lactam Antibiotics against Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

QPX7728 is an ultra-broad-spectrum beta-lactamase inhibitor with potent inhibition of key serine and metallo beta-lactamases. QPX7728 enhances the potency of multiple beta-lactams in beta-lactamase producing Enterobacterales and Acinetobacter spp. In this study we evaluated the in vitro activity of QPX7728 (8 μg/ml) combined with multiple beta-lactams against clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa with varying beta-lactam resistance mechanisms.Seven-hundred-ninety clinical isolates were included in this study; 500 isolates, termed a "representative panel", were selected to be representative the MIC distribution of meropenem (MEM), ceftazidime-avibactam (CAZ-AVI), and ceftolozane-tazobactam (TOL-TAZ) resistance for clinical isolates according to 2017 SENTRY surveillance data (representative panel). An additional 290 selected isolates ("challenge panel"), that were either non-susceptible to MEM or were resistant to TOL-TAZ or CAZ-AVI were also tested; 61 strains carried metallo beta-lactamases (MBLs), 211 strains were defective in the carbapenem porin OprD and 185 strains had the MexAB-OprM efflux pump overproduced based on a phenotypic test. Against the representative panel, susceptibility for all QPX7728/beta-lactam combinations was >90%. For the challenge panel, QPX-ceftolozane (TOL) was the most active combination (78.6% susceptible) followed by equipotent QPX-piperacillin (PIP) and QPX-cefepime (FEP), restoring susceptibility in 70.3% of strains (CLSI breakpoints for the beta-lactam compound alone). For MBL-negative strains, QPX-TOL and QPX-FEP restored the MIC values to susceptibility rates in ∼90% and ∼80% of strains, respectively, vs 68-70% for QPX-MEM and QPX-PIP and 63-65% for TOL-TAZ and CAZ-AVI. For MBL-positive strains, QPX-PIP restored the MIC to susceptibility values for ∼70% of strains vs 2-40% for other combinations. Increased efflux and impaired OprD had varying effect on QPX7728 combination depending on the partner beta-lactam tested. QPX7728 enhanced the potency of multiple beta-lactams against P. aeruginosa, with varying results according to the beta-lactamase production and other intrinsic resistance mechanisms.