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Newly Detected Transmission of blaKPC-2 by Outer Membrane Vesicles in Klebsiella Pneumoniae

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Abstract

Objective

The prevalence of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CR-KP) is a global public health problem. It is mainly caused by the plasmid-carried carbapenemase gene. Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) contain toxins and other factors involved in various biological processes, including β-lactamase and antibiotic-resistance genes. This study aimed to reveal the transmission mechanism of OMV-mediated drug resistance of Klebsiella (K.) pneumoniae.

Methods

We selected CR-KP producing K. pneumoniae carbapenemase-2 (KPC-2) to study whether they can transfer resistance genes through OMVs. The OMVs of CR-KP were obtained by ultracentrifugation, and incubated with carbapenem-sensitive K. pneumoniae for 4 h. Finally, the carbapenem-sensitive K. pneumoniae was tested for the presence of blaKPC-2 resistance gene and its sensitivity to carbapenem antibiotics.

Results

The existence of OMVs was observed by the electron microscopy. The extracted OMVs had blaKPC-2 resistance gene. After incubation with OMVs, blaKPC-2 resistance gene was detected in sensitive K. pneumoniae, and it became resistant to imipenem and meropenem.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that OMVs isolated from KPC-2-producing CR-KP could deliver blaKPC-2 to sensitive K. pneumoniae, allowing the bacteria to produce carbapenemase, which may provide a novel target for innovative therapies in combination with conventional antibiotics for treating carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae.

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Author notes

  1. The authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Wuhan Fourth Hospital, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Liu-jun Chen, Xiao-peng Jing, Ting-ting Wu, Rui-ling Sun, Xiao-chun Min & Ji Zeng

  2. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Neurological Disorders, Department of Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medicine, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Dong-li Meng, Huan Zhou & Rong Liu

Authors
  1. Liu-jun Chen
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  2. Xiao-peng Jing
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  3. Dong-li Meng
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  4. Ting-ting Wu
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  5. Huan Zhou
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  6. Rui-ling Sun
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  7. Xiao-chun Min
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  8. Rong Liu
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  9. Ji Zeng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ji Zeng.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31771189), the Wuhan Health Commission (No. WX18C17 and No. WX19Q31), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province, China (No. 2017CFA065 and No. WJ2019H378).

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Chen, Lj., Jing, Xp., Meng, Dl. et al. Newly Detected Transmission of blaKPC-2 by Outer Membrane Vesicles in Klebsiella Pneumoniae. CURR MED SCI 43, 80–85 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-022-2680-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-022-2680-7

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