In vitro activity of rifampin, rifabutin, rifapentine, and rifaximin against planktonic and biofilm states of staphylococci isolated from periprosthetic joint infection

The in vitro activities of rifampin, rifabutin, rifapentine, and rifaximin were tested against 200 periprosthetic joint infection (PJI)-associated staphylococci. Seven rifampin-resistant isolates had MICs of ≥4 μg/ml. Three isolates had rifampin MICs of 0.25 to 1 μg/ml and harbored an Asp471Gly RpoB variant, suggesting that the CLSI rifampin-susceptible staphylococcal breakpoint of ≤1 μg/ml may be too high. The remaining isolates had rifampin MICs of ≤0.016 μg/ml, and the rifampin, rifabutin, rifapentine, and rifaximin minimum biofilm bactericidal concentrations (MBBC) for ≥50% of isolates were 8, 1, 2, and 4 μg/ml (for S. aureus) and 2, 0.06, 0.25, and 0.5 μg/ml (for S. epidermidis), respectively, for rifampin-susceptible isolates. Nonrifampin rifamycins have promising staphylococcal activity, including antibiofilm activity.