Genetic Insights on Meropenem Resistance Concerning Klebsiella pneumoniae Clinical Isolates

• Published in: Life (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 14; no. 11; p. 1408
• Main Authors: Elkady, Fathy M., Badr, Bahaa M., Alfeky, Abdel-Aty E., Abdulrahman, Mohammed S., Hashem, Amr H., Al-Askar, Abdulaziz A., AbdElgayed, Gehad, Hashem, Hany R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-11-2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Acids; Adhesins; Antimicrobial agents; Antimicrobial resistance; Biofilms; Carbapenemase; Carbapenems; Clinical isolates; Correlation; E coli; Enzymes; Genes; Klebsiella; Klebsiella pneumoniae; Meropenem; Multidrug resistance; Phenotypes; Virulence; β Lactamase; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 2075-1729; 2075-1729
• DOI: 10.3390/life14111408

The transferable genetic elements are associated with the dissemination of virulence determinants amongst Klebsiella pneumoniae. Thus, we assessed the correlated antimicrobial resistance in carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical isolates. Each isolate’s ability to biosynthesize biofilm, carbapenemase, and extended-spectrum β-lactamase were examined. Genotypically, the biofilm-, outer membrane porin-, and some plasmid-correlated antimicrobial resistance genes were screened. About 50% of the isolates were multidrug-resistant while 98.4% were extended-spectrum β-lactamase producers and 89.3% were carbapenem-resistant. Unfortunately, 93.1% of the multidrug-resistant isolates produced different biofilm levels. Additionally, fimD and mrkD genes encoding adhesins were detected in 100% and 55.2% of the tested isolates, respectively. Also, the blaKPC, blaOXA-48-like, and blaNDM-encoding carbapenemases were observed in 16.1%, 53.6%, and 55.4% of the tested isolates, respectively. Moreover, the blaSHV and blaCTX-M extended-spectrum β-lactamase-associated genes were detected at 95.2% and 61.3%, respectively. Furthermore, aac(3)IIa, qnrB, and tetB resistance-correlated genes were observed in 38.1%, 46%, and 7.9% of the tested isolates, respectively. Certainly, the tested antimicrobial resistance-encoding genes were concurrently observed in 3.2% of the tested isolates. These findings confirmed the elevated prevalence of various antimicrobial resistance-associated genes in Klebsiella pneumoniae. The concurrent transferring of plasmid-encoding antimicrobial resistance-related genes could be associated with the possible acquisition of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae phenotypes.