Structures of enzymatically modified products of arbekacin by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Only a limited number of strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) moderately resistant to arbekacin (ABK) have been isolated clinically. Three inactivated products of ABK have been obtained by reaction with excess amounts of a crude enzyme preparation extracted from an ABK-resistant MRSA strain (MIC, 25 micrograms/ml). The 2"-O-phosphate was the major product together with small amounts of the 6'-N-acetate and the double modification product. The structures of these modification products were determined by MS and NMR spectral analyses.