Background:
Several strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae are responsible for causing pneumonia
in lung and thereby causing death in immune-suppressed patients. In recent year, few investigations
have reported the enhancement of K. pneumoniae population in patients using corticosteroid containing
inhaler.
Objectives:
The biological mechanism(s) behind this increased incidence has not been elucidated.
Therefore, the objective of this investigating was to explore the relation between Klebsiella pneumoniae
and increment in carbapenamase producing Enterobacteriaceae score (ICS).
Methods:
The available genomes of K. pneumoniae and the amino acid sequences of steroid catabolism
pathway enzymes were taken from NCBI database and KEGG pathway tagged with UniPort database,
respectively. We have used different BLAST algorithms (tBLASTn, BLASTp, psiBLAST, and
delBLAST) to identify enzymes (by their amino acid sequence) involved in steroid catabolism.
Results:
A total of 13 enzymes (taken from different bacterial candidates) responsible for corticosteroid
degradation have been identified in the genome of K. pneumoniae. Finally, 8 enzymes (K. pneumoniae
specific) were detected in four clinical strains of K. pneumoniae. This investigation intimates
that this ability to catabolize corticosteroids could potentially be one mechanism behind the increased
pneumonia incidence.
Conclusion:
The presence of corticosteroid catabolism enzymes in K. pneumoniae enhances the ability
to utilize corticosteroid for their own nutrition source. This is the first report to demonstrate the corticosteroid
degradation pathway in clinical strains of K. pneumoniae.
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