scholarly journals Molecular Characterization of Multiple Antibiotic-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Isolated from Egyptian Patients

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 2399-2405
Author(s):  
Aya A. Khodier ◽  
Amal Saafan ◽  
Walid Bakeer ◽  
Ahmed S. Khairalla

Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic microorganism commonly found in intensive care units (ICUs), and it is responsible for a broad span of hospital-acquired infections. Persistence of nosocomial infection caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) A. baumannii is an alarming health care issue in Egypt, and at present, colistin remains the treatment of choice for the management of MDR A. baumannii infections. A. baumannii possesses great capacity to develop and acquire resistance to a broad range of antibiotics. The acquisition and dissemination of antibiotic-resistant determinants in A. baumannii strains are mediated by integrons, especially class I integrons. This study focuses on the characterization of some genetic mechanisms underlying the multidrug-resistant phenotypes of A. baumannii isolates in Egypt. Forty-eight A. baumannii specimens were isolated from different hospitalized patients; least resistance was observed against amikacin and tigecycline, with 60% and 58.5% of the isolates resistant, respectively, whereas 62.5% of the isolates were resistant to imipenem and meropenem. The highest sensitivity was found for colistin. Genetic analysis revealed that blaoxa-51 was detected in all isolates, the blaoxa-23-like gene was detected in 80% of the isolates, and blaoxa-24 and blaoxs-58 were not detected in any isolate. Finally, PCR analysis revealed that 6.6% of isolates carried the class I integron gene.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 354
Author(s):  
Nuria Crua Asensio ◽  
Javier Macho Rendón ◽  
Marc Torrent Burgas

The rise in the number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has become a serious threat to health, making it important to identify, characterize and optimize new molecules to help us to overcome the infections they cause. It is well known that Acinetobacter baumannii has a significant capacity to evade the actions of antibacterial drugs, leading to its emergence as one of the bacteria responsible for hospital and community-acquired infections. Nonetheless, how this pathogen infects and survives inside the host cell is unclear. In this study, we analyze the time-resolved transcriptional profile changes observed in human epithelial HeLa cells after infection by A. baumannii, demonstrating how it survives in host cells and starts to replicate 4 h post infection. These findings were achieved by sequencing RNA to obtain a set of Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) to understand how bacteria alter the host cells’ environment for their own benefit. We also determine common features observed in this set of genes and identify the protein–protein networks that reveal highly-interacted proteins. The combination of these findings paves the way for the discovery of new antimicrobial candidates for the treatment of multidrug-resistant bacteria.


1999 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 734-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Dalsgaard ◽  
A. Forslund ◽  
N. V. Tam ◽  
D. X. Vinh ◽  
P. D. Cam

The number of cholera cases and the mortality rates reported from different regions of Vietnam varied considerably in the period from 1979 to 1996, with between 2,500 and 6,000 cases reported annually from 1992 to 1995. Annual mortality rates ranged from 2.0 to 9.6% from 1979 to 1983 to less than 1.8% after 1983. Major cholera outbreaks were reported from the High Plateau region for the first time in 1994 and 1995; this is an area with limited access to health services and safe drinking-water supplies. All cases were associated with Vibrio cholerae O1. Using ribotyping, cholera toxin (CT) genotyping, and characterization of antibiotic susceptibility patterns and antibiotic resistance genes by PCR, we show that strains isolated after 1990 were clearly different from strains isolated before 1991. In contrast to strains isolated before 1991, 94% of 104 strains isolated after 1990 showed an identical ribotype R1, were resistant to sulfamethoxazole and streptomycin, and showed a different CT genotype. Furthermore, PCR analysis revealed that sulfamethoxazole-resistant strains harbored class I integrons containing a gene cassette ant(3")-1aencoding resistance to streptomycin and spectinomycin. This is, to our knowledge, the first report of class I integrons in V. cholerae. The development of cholera and the changes in the phenotypic and genotypic properties of V. cholerae O1 shown in the present study highlight the importance of monitoring V. cholerae O1 in Vietnam as in other parts of the world. In particular, the emergence of the new ribotype R1 strain containing class I integrons should be further studied.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. S314-S314
Author(s):  
Alita Miller ◽  
Sarah McLeod ◽  
Tarun Mathur ◽  
Ian Morrissey

Abstract Background The incidence of infections caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii is increasing at an alarming rate in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world. Sulbactam (SUL) has intrinsic antibacterial activity against A. baumannii; however, the prevalence of β-lactamases in this species has limited its therapeutic use. Durlobactam (ETX2514, DUR) is a novel β-lactamase inhibitor with broad-spectrum activity against Ambler class A, C and D β-lactamases. DUR restores SUL in vitro activity against multidrug-resistant A. baumannii. Against >3,600 globally diverse, clinical isolates from 2012–2017, addition of 4 mg/L DUR reduced the SUL MIC90 from >32 to 2 mg/L. SUL-DUR is currently in Phase 3 clinical development for the treatment of infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter spp.The goal of this study was to determine the activity of SUL-DUR and comparator antibiotics (amikacin (AMK), ampicillin-sulbactam (AMP-SUL), cefoperazone-sulbactam (CFP-SUL) and meropenem (MEM)) against A. baumannii isolated from hospitalized patients in India. Methods A total of 121 clinical A. baumannii isolates from multiple hospital settings and infection sources were collected between 2016–2019 from six geographically diverse hospitals in India. Species identification was performed by MALDI-TOF. Susceptibility of these isolates to SUL-DUR (10µg/10µg) and comparator antibiotics was determined by disk diffusion using CLSI methodology and interpretive criteria, except for CFP-SUL, for which resistance was defined using breakpoints from the CFP-SUL package insert. Results As shown in Table 1, resistance of this collection of isolates to marketed agents was extremely high. In contrast, based on preliminary breakpoint criteria, only 11.5% of isolates were resistant to SUL-DUR. Conclusion The in vitro antibacterial activity of SUL-DUR was significantly more potent than comparator agents against multidrug-resistant A. baumannii isolates collected from diverse sites in India. These data support the continued development of SUL-DUR for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections caused by A. baumannii. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 202 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Pérez-Varela ◽  
Aimee R. P. Tierney ◽  
Ju-Sim Kim ◽  
Andrés Vázquez-Torres ◽  
Philip Rather

ABSTRACT In response to nutrient depletion, the RelA and SpoT proteins generate the signaling molecule (p)ppGpp, which then controls a number of downstream effectors to modulate cell physiology. In Acinetobacter baumannii strain AB5075, a relA ortholog (ABUW_3302) was identified by a transposon insertion that conferred an unusual colony phenotype. An in-frame deletion in relA (ΔrelA) failed to produce detectable levels of ppGpp when amino acid starvation was induced with serine hydroxamate. The ΔrelA mutant was blocked from switching from the virulent opaque colony variant (VIR-O) to the avirulent translucent colony variant (AV-T), but the rate of AV-T to VIR-O switching was unchanged. In addition, the ΔrelA mutation resulted in a pronounced hypermotile phenotype on 0.35% agar plates. This hypermotility was dependent on the activation of a LysR regulator ABUW_1132, which was required for expression of AbaR, a LuxR family quorum-sensing regulator. In the ΔrelA mutant, ABUW_1132 was also required for the increased expression of an operon composed of the ABUW_3766-ABUW_3773 genes required for production of the surfactant-like lipopeptide acinetin 505. Additional phenotypes identified in the ΔrelA mutant included (i) cell elongation at high density, (ii) reduced formation of persister cells tolerant to colistin and rifampin, and (iii) decreased virulence in a Galleria mellonella model. IMPORTANCE Acinetobacter baumannii is a pathogen of worldwide importance. Due to the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance, these infections are becoming increasingly difficult to treat. New therapies are required to combat multidrug-resistant isolates. The role of RelA in A. baumannii is largely unknown. This study demonstrates that like in other bacteria, RelA controls a variety of functions, including virulence. Strategies to inhibit the activity of RelA and the resulting production of ppGpp could inhibit virulence and may represent a new therapeutic approach.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garima Bansal ◽  
Rachelle Allen-McFarlane ◽  
Broderick Eribo

The occurrence of carbapenem-resistant (CR) strains of Acinetobacter baumannii is reported to contribute to the severity of several nosocomial infections, especially in critically ill patients in intensive care units. The present study aims to determine the antibiotic susceptibility, clonality, and genetic mechanism of carbapenem resistance in twenty-eight Acinetobacter baumannii isolates from four hospitals in Washington DC. The antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates was determined by VITEK 2 analyses, while PCR was used to examine the presence of antibiotic-resistant genes and mobile genetic elements. Trilocus multiplex-PCR was used along with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) for strain typing and for accessing clonal relationships among the isolates. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing indicated that 46% of the isolates were carbapenem-resistant and possessed MDR and XDR phenotypes. PFGE clustered the 28 isolates into seven clonal (C1–C7) complexes based on >75% similarity cut-off. Thirty-six percent of the isolates belonged to international clone II, while 29% were assigned to Group 4 by trilocus multiplex-PCR. Although the blaOXA-51-like gene was found in all the isolates, only 36% were positive for the blaOXA-23-like gene. PCR analysis also found a metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) gene (blaVIM) in 71% of the isolates. Of the 13 CR isolates, 8 were PCR positive for both blaVIM and blaOXA-23-like genes, while 5 harbored only blaVIM gene. This study revealed the emergence of VIM carbapenemase-producing A. baumannii isolates, which has not been previously reported in the United States.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Pérez-Varela ◽  
Jordi Corral ◽  
Jesús Aranda ◽  
Jordi Barbé

ABSTRACTAcinetobacter baumanniihas emerged as an important multidrug-resistant nosocomial pathogen. In previous work, we identified a putative MFS transporter, AU097_RS17040, involved in the pathogenicity ofA. baumannii(M. Pérez-Varela, J. Corral, J. A. Vallejo, S. Rumbo-Feal, G. Bou, J. Aranda, and J. Barbé, Infect Immun 85:e00327-17, 2017,https://doi.org/10.1128/IAI.00327-17). In this study, we analyzed the susceptibility to diverse antimicrobial agents ofA. baumanniicells defective in this transporter, referred to as AbaQ. Our results showed that AbaQ is mainly involved in the extrusion of quinolone-type drugs inA. baumannii.


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