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. 2020 Oct 21:53:e20200397.
doi: 10.1590/0037-8682-0397-2020. eCollection 2020.

High plasmid variability, and the presence of IncFIB, IncQ, IncA/C, IncHI1B, and IncL/M in clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae with bla KPC and bla NDM from patients at a public hospital in Brazil

Érica Maria de Oliveira  1 , Elizabeth Maria Bispo Beltrão  1 , Alexsandra Maria Lima Scavuzzi  1 , Josineide Ferreira Barros  2 , Ana Catarina Souza Lopes  1
Affiliations

High plasmid variability, and the presence of IncFIB, IncQ, IncA/C, IncHI1B, and IncL/M in clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae with bla KPC and bla NDM from patients at a public hospital in Brazil

Érica Maria de Oliveira et al. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. .

Abstract

Introduction: Antibiotic resistance in carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae is acquired and disseminated mainly by plasmids. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the occurrence of carbapenemase genes, analyze the genetic diversity by ERIC-PCR, and examine the most common plasmid incompatibility groups (Incs) in clinical isolates of K. pneumoniae from colonization and infection in patients from a hospital in Brazil.

Methods: Twenty-seven isolates of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae were selected and screened for the presence of carbapenemase genes and Incs by PCR, followed by amplicon sequencing.

Results: The bla KPC and bla NDM genes were detected in 24 (88.8 %) and 16 (59.2 %) of the isolates, respectively. Thirteen isolates (48.1 %) were positive for both genes. The IncFIB (92.6 %) and IncQ (88.8 %) were the most frequent plasmids, followed by IncA/C, IncHI1B, and IncL/M, indicating that plasmid variability existed in these isolates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of IncHI1B in Brazil. We found eight isolates with clonal relationship distributed in different sectors of the hospital.

Conclusions: The accumulation of resistance determinants, the variability of plasmid Incs, and the clonal dissemination detected in K. pneumoniae isolates demonstrate their potential for infection, colonization, and the dissemination of different resistance genes and plasmids.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Figures

FIGURE 1:
FIGURE 1:. Electrophoresis using a 1.5 % agarose gel for ERIC-PCR from representative isolates of K. pneumoniae. Lane 1: 1 Kb molecular weight marker (Promega), lanes 2-17: K. pneumoniae isolates.
FIGURE 2:
FIGURE 2:. Dendrogram generated from the results of the ERIC-PCR using the Darwin 6.0 software, illustrating the relationship between the profiles of the 27 isolates of K. pneumoniae that were resistant to carbapenems and obtained from Recife-PE, Brazil.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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