Susceptibility of Escherichia coli to nitroxoline, an option for uncomplicated urinary tract infections - the first report from Croatia

Nitroxoline (NTX), 5-nitro-8-hydroxyquinoline is an oral antibiotic with mechanism of bacteriostatic activity that is based on chelation of divalent cations required for bacterial RNA polymerase. Susceptibility to NTX of 100 Escherichia coli urine isolates was determined at the Department of Clinical and Molecular Microbiology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb during September and October 2017. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by disc diffusion and the results were interpreted according to the European Committee for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) standards. All E. coli isolates, including ESBL-positive ones, were fully susceptible to imipenem, meropenem, amikacin, fosfomycin and NTX. This is the first report from Croatia about sensitivity of E. coli isolates to NTX. Besides fosfomycin, NTX was the only antimicrobial drug available for peroral administration demonstrating the sensitivity for all tested isolates. The results of the study demonstrated the potential of NTX as an additional therapeutically applicable option for the treatment of uncomplicated UTI.