Cefprozil, an oral semisynthetic cephalosporin, is commonly utilized in the treatment of respiratory-tract infections in children. While this agent has provided acceptable clinical success over a number of years, this study was undertaken to better define its pharmacodynamic profile against Streptococcus pneumoniae. Nineteen clinical isolates of S. pneumoniae were utilized in the neutropenic murine thigh infection model. To simulate the pharmacokinetic profile of cefprozil in children, the renal function of mice was impaired with uranyl nitrate, and a commercially available cefprozil suspension (6 mg/kg of body weight) was administered orally every 12 h. Mice were infected with 10 6 to 10 7 CFU per thigh, and therapy was initiated 2 h later. At 0 and 24 h postinfection, thighs were harvested to determine bacterial density. Survival was assessed during 96 h of therapy. The magnitude of bacterial kill ranged from 0.5 to 4.4 log 10 CFU per thigh over 24 h, and the extent of microbial eradication was dependent on the MIC. Killing of more than 2.6 log 10 CFU per thigh was observed with MICs of <3 g/ml, while either minimal killing or growth was detected with MICs of >4 g/ml. Mortality in untreated control animals was 100%. Animals infected with strains for which the MICs were <2 g/ml survived the infection, whereas MICs exceeding 2 g/ml resulted in substantial mortality. These studies demonstrate the effectiveness of cefprozil against isolates of the pneumococcus for which the MICs are <2 g/ml using a drug exposure typically observed in children. These data support a susceptibility breakpoint of <2 g/ml for cefprozil.Cefprozil is a semisynthetic broad-spectrum cephalosporin antibiotic which is currently available in an oral dosage form (i.e., tablet and suspension) for the treatment of respiratorytract and skin or skin structure infections in both adults and children. While this agent has provided acceptable clinical success rates for its approved indications when the infecting pathogen is Streptococcus pneumoniae (2,3,11,12), the pharmacodynamic profile of cefprozil against this important pathogen has not been fully described. The availability of these data not only will assist with optimizing the effectiveness of the prescribed antimicrobial regimen in clinical practice but also has assisted with the assessment of appropriate National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) breakpoints for this antimicrobial agent.Therefore, the present study was undertaken to better define the in vivo activity of cefprozil against S. pneumoniae using a neutropenic murine thigh infection model.
MATERIALS AND METHODSAntimicrobial test agents. Penicillin and cefprozil analytical-grade standards were obtained for in vitro testing from Sigma Chemicals, St. Louis, Mo., and Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, N.J., respectively. For all in vivo studies, a commercially available cefprozil (Cefzil; lot no. J8E18B; expiration date, Oct. 2001; Bristol-Myers Squibb) suspension was obtained from the manufacturer and administered via t...