Advances in mechanisms of bacterial resistance to linezolid and related detection methods

Linezolid is an antibacterial belonging to the oxazolidinone class of antibiotics.The importance of linezolid as an antibiotic is related to its activity against a number of clinically significant Gram-positive cocci,including multidrug-resistant staphylococci and vancomycin-resistant enterococci.Although bacterial resistance to linezolid is not a major issue at present,its development in clinical isolates should be paid more attention.In this article,the mechanisms of bacterial resistance to linezolid,and related detection methods were reviewed.We showed that bacterial resistance is mediated by a single-nucleotide mutation and the production of methyltransferase,however,other potential mechanisms have not yet been determined.The detection methods for linezolid resistance include microbiological and molecular biological methods,some of which would benefit from technological improvements.