ABSTRACT
The emergence of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) is a critical concern worldwide. In Italy, CPE isolates are very frequent, with the KPC enzyme types strongly predominant whereas the New Delhi metallo-ß-lactamase (NDM) enzymes are extremely rare. Here we report the first detection of NDM-5-producing Escherichia coli sequence type 167 (ST167) isolates from two patients with urinary tract infection (Ec001 and Ec002 from urines), including one with colonisation (Ec003 from faeces) admitted to the same hospital 2 months apart in 2017. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined by broth microdilution. The carbapenemase type was identified both by phenotypic and genotypic methods. Isolate genotypes were investigated by phylogenetic typing, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to obtain complete sequences of plasmids. The three E. coli isolates carried the blaNDM-5 gene, shared the same resistance phenotype and belonged to ST167. By PFGE, isolates showed the same profile, suggesting that they were the same strain. NGS revealed that the blaNDM-5 gene was located on a 99-kb multireplicon plasmid (designed pNDM-5-IT) with a peculiar scaffold constituted by four replicons of the IncF type (FIA, FIB and two copies of the FII replicon). pNDM-5-IT plasmid harboured multiple resistance and virulence determinants, including the arginine deaminase (ADI) cluster never found associated with plasmids before. Since NDM-5-producing E. coli ST167 has been regarded as a successful epidemic clone in China, the emergence of such a clone carrying a plasmid associated both with multiresistance and virulence could be a public-health threat.
Subject(s)
Plasmids/genetics , Uropathogenic Escherichia coli/isolation & purification , beta-Lactamases/genetics , Aged , Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial/genetics , Escherichia coli Infections/microbiology , Humans , Italy , Microbial Sensitivity Tests , Middle Aged , Urinary Tract Infections/microbiology , Uropathogenic Escherichia coli/drug effects , Uropathogenic Escherichia coli/genetics , beta-Lactamases/drug effects , beta-Lactamases/isolation & purificationABSTRACT
We report a patient with clinically significant vaginal posthysterectomy infection due to Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. The microorganism isolated from the vaginal cuff abscess was beta-lactamase producer and the antibiotic susceptibility pattern showed its resistance to piperacillin-tazobactam and cefoxitin, while the susceptibility to amoxicillin associated with clavulanic acid, metronidazole, and the newer fluoroquinolone moxifloxacin was confirmed.
