Abstract
Objectives
Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common extraintestinal infections, and uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is the main cause of UTIs. However, the ability to treat UTI has been compromised by the increase in antimicrobial resistance, especially carbapenem resistance. Here, we aimed to characterize the antimicrobial resistance and molecular epidemiology of carbapenem-resistant UPEC isolated in Shandong, China.
Methods
In total, 17 carbapenem-resistant UPEC (CR-UPEC) isolates were collected from July 2017 to May 2020 in the Shandong Provincial Hospital. Whole-genome sequencing and bioinformatics analyses were performed to understand the molecular epidemiology of CR-UPEC. Phylogenetic groups, drug resistance genes, biofilm formation, and virulence-related gene profiles of the isolates were analyzed. Plasmid profiling and conjugation assay were performed to evaluate the ability to transfer carbapenem resistance-related genes to other E. coli isolates. Biofilm formation was also evaluated, as it is important for the persistence of infectious diseases.
Results
We observed that 15 out of 17 CR-UPEC strains were blaNDM producers, among which 4 isolates could transfer blaNDM to recipient cells. The predominant sequence type was ST167 (6/17), followed by ST410 (3/17). The most prevalent phylogenetic group was phylogenetic group A (10/17), followed by phylogenetic group C (3/17). One isolate was resistant to polymyxin, which was caused by the carriage of a transferable plasmid harboring mcr-1. Statistical analysis did not reveal any significant difference in the carriage rate of fimbriae-coding genes between strong and weak biofilm producers.
Conclusions
Our observations may assist in developing new therapeutic methods for drug-resistant organisms.
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Data availability
The data presented in this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Zhiming Lu for the help and support.
Funding
The study was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (81902119) and Shandong Province Natural Science Fundation (ZR2020MH306).
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Yingying Hao contributed to experiment conception and design. Ran Chen and Guili Wang conducted bioinformatics analysis and the wrote the paper.Yueling Wang,Yuanyuan Bai and Zhen Song performed data analysis. Zhongkun Wan and Meng Zhang carried out the bacteria identification. Zaigeng Si,Xinglun Lu and Qian Wang prepared the Tables and figures. The corresponding author is responsible for submitting a competing interests statement on behalf of all authors of the paper.
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Chen, R., Wang, G., Wang, Q. et al. Antimicrobial resistance and molecular epidemiology of carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli from urinary tract infections in Shandong, China. Int Microbiol 26, 1157–1166 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10123-023-00369-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10123-023-00369-7