Metabolism of the chemo antibiotic combination sulphamethoxazol and trimethoprim by some radioresistant strains

The radioresistant mutants B. Firmus, B. Laterosporus, B. Megaterium, M. Roseus and M. Luteus were tested microbiologically for their sensitivity to a drug consisting of the chemo antibiotic combination of sulphamethoxazole (SMZ) and trimethoprim (TMP) in a ratio of 20:1. All the studied mutant strains were found to be insensitive to this combination of antibiotics except the radioresistant mutant strain of M.roseus. The mechanism of the inactivation of both SMZ and TMP by the radioresistant mutants of B. Laterosporus, B. Firmus, and M.Luteus was studied. The drug was incubated with each of these mutants for different periods of time to study its degradation. High performance liquid chromatography and microbiological assay techniques were used to determine the activity and the pathway of the consumption of the drug after its incubation with these three mutants for time. The results indicated that the drug acts in a synergistic effect on all the studied mutants. Only a part of both molecules of SMZ and TMP was utilized by the studied mutant strains. The ratio of the left over of SMZ/TMP were found to be 6,6 and 8 after seven days incubation periods and 12, 7.5 and 19 after two weeks incubation periods with B. Laterosporus, B. Firmus, and M. Luteus mutants respectively. The microbial activity of the extracted drug for bacilli strains isolated from clean environment had not changed significantly due to incubation with the mutants, but it was decreased for M. Luteus strain. The drug inactivation by the studied mutant strains seemed to be due to decreased affinities to SMZ and TMP, and to formation of an altered 7,8 dihydropteroate synthetase and dihydrofolate reductase