The presence of high-level carbapenem resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae is due to the combination of IMP-4 metallo-β-lactamase and porin OmpK36 deficiency / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate mechanisms of carbapenem resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Methods Two carbapenem-non-susceptible Klebsiella pneumoniae Z4 and Z5 isolated from Beijing Hospital in 2008 were investigated. MICs of antibiotics were determined by agar dilution method.Conjugation experiment was carried out in mixed broth cultures. Plasmid DNA preparations were obtained by using an alkalinelysis technique. Elimination of plasmids was performed by repeated SDS treatment. The crude β-lactamase extracts were subjected to IEF. The genotype of β-lactamases were confirmed by PCRs and DNA sequence analysis. Outer membrane proteins (Omps) were isolated and examined by SDS-PAGE.The ompK35 and ompK36 genes were amplified by using PCR and were sequenced. Results MICs of imipenem, meropenem and ertapenem for Z4 and Z5 were 32, 32 and 256 μg/mi, and 1, 1 and 2 μg/ml.Conjugation study with Escherichia coli EC600 resulted in the transfer of significant reduced carbapenem susceptibility from Z4 and Z5 ( MICs increased at least 8-fold). Klebsiella pneumoniae Z4 produced IMP-4 metallo-β-lactamase, TEM-1 and SHV-1 spectrum β-lactamase and Z5 produced IMP-4, TEM-1 and SHV-12 extended-spectrum β-lactamase. E. coli transconjugants of both Z4 and Z5 produced a single IMP-4.Elimination of IMP-4-encoding plasmid from Z5 resulted in carbapenem susceptibility in the isolate,however, Z5 whose IMP-4-encoding plasmid was eliminated exhibited reduced susceptibility to carbapenems ( MICs of imipenem, meropenem and ertapenem were 0. 25 μg/ml,0. 5 μg/ml and 4 μg/ml). Amplification of integron revealed that blaIMP-4 gene of both Z4 and Z5 located within two different class I integrons which were carried on two plasmids with a similar size of approximately 55 000 bp. SDS-PAGE and ompK35/36 genes sequence analysis of Omp indicated that Z4 failed to express OmpK36, because of a nonsense mutation (CAG into TAG) in the ompK36 gene. Conclusion Production of plasmid-mediated metallo-β-lactamase IMP-4 or production of β-lactamase combined with porin OmpK36 deficiency can lead to reduced susceptibility to carbapenems. High-level carbapenem resistance in Z4 is mainly due to production of IMP-4 and the loss of OmpK36.