Daptomycin as adjunctive treatment for experimental infection by Acinetobacter baumannii with resistance to colistin

•Acinetobacter baumannii with resistance to colistin (ABRC) necessitates new treatments.•The combination of daptomycin and colistin leads to in vitro eradication of ABRC.•Daptomycin given with colistin prolongs survival in experimental ABRC infection in mice.•Failure of single colistin is related to rebound of tissue outgrowth. The emergence of Acinetobacter baumannii with resistance to colistin (ABRC) led to the investigation of daptomycin as an adjunctive to colistin for these isolates. In this study, one ABRC carbapenemase-producing bloodstream isolate was examined. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were >512, >512 and 8 µg/mL for imipenem, daptomycin and colistin, respectively. First, a ‘humanised’ model of the pharmacokinetics of daptomycin and colistin was developed in 18 male C57BL/6 mice. Then, 112 mice were infected by intraperitoneal injection of the ABRC isolate and were randomly assigned into four groups of once-daily treatment for 7 days: group A, controls treated with saline; group B, treated with 20 mg/kg colistin; group C, treated with 50 mg/kg daptomycin; and group D, treated with both agents. Survival was recorded for 7 days in ten mice per group. The remaining mice were sacrificed at regular time intervals following bacterial challenge and the bacterial outgrowth in the liver, lung and right kidney was determined. Mean serum concentrations of daptomycin at 15, 30 and 60 min post-dose were 121.8, 110.3 and 100.4 µg/mL, respectively. The respective concentrations of colistin were 13.9, 9.1 and 7.5 µg/mL. The 7-day mortality in groups A, B, C and D was 100%, 50%, 100% and 0%, respectively. Tissue outgrowth of the right kidney was significantly decreased in group D compared with group B after 72 h. Daptomycin used in combination with colistin leads to prolonged survival in an experimental infection by ABRC. Failure of colistin alone is probably related to rebound of tissue outgrowth.