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Vancomycin has been the cornerstone of antistaphylococcal therapy for decades, and although high-level resistance to vancomycin among methicillin-resistant S. aureus is very rare, increasing heterogeneous resistance to vancomycin is threatening vancomycin treatment efficacy. Antimicrobial resistance has been associated with bacterial virulence among several human pathogens. Now, researchers demonstrate a direct link between expression of the vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (VISA) phenotype and reduced virulence in S. aureus.
The group found that vraR, a member of the two-component vraRS regulatory system that is important in controlling peptidoglycan synthesis, directly suppresses transcription of the accessory gene regulator (agr). In S. …