Thermo Scientific™ Beta Lactam Disk

Description

• Detect beta lactamase production by certain strains of Haemophilus sp., Neisseria gonorrhoeae , and Staphylococcus sp
• using a reagent-impregnated Thermo Scientific™ Remel™ Beta Lactam™ Disk
• Several acidometric methods using phenol red as an indicator and penicillin as a substrate have been published 12, 1-3
• In 1972, O'Callaghan et al
• described a beta lactamase procedure using chromogenic cephalosporin as a substrate 12
• Cresol red and bromocresol purple have also been incorporated as indicators in acidometric methods with penicillin as the substrate 13,4
• Certain gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria produce an important class of enzymes called beta-lactamases, which may be mediated by genes on plasmids or chromosomes
• These enzymes confer resistance to many penicillin antibiotics by cleaving the beta-lactam ring of penicillin and cephalosporin antibiotics, resulting in inactivation of these drugs
• They are capable of inactivating “penicillinase-labile-penicillins”, such as amoxicillin, ampicillin, penicillin, carbenicillin, mezlocillin, and piperacillin
• β-lactamases thus play a key role in bacterial resistance to beta-lactam agents, and detection of their presence can provide useful information 5
• Ready to Use: Reagent impregnated disk Rapid Test: Results are obtained within 30 minutes
• Reaction time for the positive test is 1-10 minutes
• Easy-to-identify: Positive test: Color change from blue to yellow indicates the production of beta lactamase
• Negative test: No color change indicates no beta lactamase production
• Beta lactamase production by certain strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Haemophilus influenzae , and Staphylococcus aureus has been demonstrated 6-13
• Several clinical tests have been developed for the detection of beta lactamases
• The Beta Lactam Disk is impregnated with benzylpenicillin which contains a beta lactam ring
• When the beta lactamase enzyme is produced by an organism, the beta lactam ring of benzylpenicillin is hydrolyzed to form penicilloic acid
• This cleavage of the beta lactam ring inactivates the antibiotic
• The resulting fall in pH is indicated by the bromocresol purple indicator changing from purple to yellow
• Not all products are available for sale in all territories
• Please inquire
• Remel™ and Oxoid™ products are now part of the Thermo Scientific brand.