Intra-and interspecies effects of outer membrane vesicles from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia on β-lactam resistance

Abstract

The treatment of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia infection with β-lactam antibiotics leads to increased release of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), which are packed with two chromosomally encodedβ-lactamases. Here, we show that theseβ-lactamase-packed OMVsare capable of establishing extracellularβ-lactam degradation.Wealso show that they dramatically increase the apparent MICs of imipenem and ticarcillin for the cohabituating species Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cenocepacia.