Emergence of OXA-484-Producing Klebsiella variicola in China

Abstract

Purpose

The frequent and inappropriate use of antibiotics has caused a dramatic rise in the number, species, and degree of multi-drug resistant bacteria, making them more prevalent and difficult to treat. In this context, the aim of the present study was to characterize the OXA-484-producing strains isolated from a perianal swab of a patient by using whole-genome analysis.

Patients and Methods

In this study, carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella variicola was identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), average nucleotide identity (ANI) and PCR. S1 nuclease pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (S1-PFGE) and Southern blotting were utilized to characterize the plasmid profiles of K. variicola 4717. In particular, WGS was performed to obtain genomic information on this clinical isolate, and assemble all the plasmids of the bla_OXA-484-harboring strain.

Results

The antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of K. variicola 4717 revealed that it was resistant to a range of antibiotics, including aztreonam, imipenem, meropenem, ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, piperacillin-tazobactam, methylene-sulfamer oxazole, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, cefepime, and tigecycline. Its susceptibility to chloromycin was intermediate, while it was still susceptible to amikacin, gentamicin, fosfomycin, and polymyxin B. The presence of two companion plasmids, p4717_1 and p4717_2, together with a plasmid carrying the bla_OXA-484 gene was observed. An in-depth investigation of p4717-OXA-484 uncovered that it is an IncX3-type plasmid and shares a similar segment encoded by IS26. Given the similar genetic background, it was conceivable that bla_OXA-484 could have developed from bla_OXA-181 through a series of mutations.

Conclusion

Herein, we described the first genome sequence of K. variicola strain harbouring the class D β-actamase bla_OXA-484 in an Inc-X3-type plasmid. Our work also uncovered the genetic characterization of K. variicola 4717 and the importance of initiating antimicrobial detection promptly.

Keywords:

• Klebsiella variicola
• OXA-484
• IncX3
• mutation

Ethics Approval

The ethical protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University (no. 2021-631).

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by research grants from Henan Science and Technology Department (192102310059), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82072314), the Research Project of Jinan Microecological Biomedicine Shandong Laboratory (JNL-2022011B), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2022ZFJH003), CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2019-I2M-5-045), Henan Province Medical Science and Technology Research Project Joint Construction Project (LHGJ20190232), and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LQ20H200003).

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.