The antibiotic resistance among Corynebacterium species has increased, sometimes leading to the use of vancomycin as the drug of choice (Yoo et al. 2015). Some Corynebacterium species belonging to human flora skin such as Corynebacterium striatum, Corynebacterium jeikeium and Corynebacterium urealyticum have expressed multidrug-resistance can cause a wide range of disorders as bacteremia, endocarditis, septicemia and others invasive infections mainly in immunocompromised patients (Bernard 2012).

Resistance to fluoroquinolones has become common in some bacterial pathogens. Analysis of the sequences of the QRDR of the gyrA gene in isolates of C. striatum, Corynebacterium amycolatum, and Corynebacterium macginleyi have shown that resistance to fluoroquinolones is associated with mutations of a spontaneous nature in this gene and depends on the number of mutations and the type of aminoacid that has been substituted (Sierra et al. 2005; Eguchi et al. 2008; Alibi et al. 2017).

In this study, we investigated 14 multidrug-resistant isolates of C. striatum (n = 7), C. jeikeium (n = 4) and C. urealyticum (n = 3) from blood (n = 10) and catheter segments (n = 4), during the period of 48 months (Aug. 2009 – Aug. 2013) of 13 hospitalised patients attended in two hospitals located at the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. All isolates were deposited in the bacteria collection: Coleção de Bactérias do Ambiente e Saúde of Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (CBAS/FIOCRUZ—www.cbas.fiocruz.br).

The identity of isolates was confirmed by 16S rRNA and rpoB genes sequencing (Baio et al. 2013). The antimicrobial susceptibility test by disk-diffusion method according to Brazilian Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (BrCAST) document showed that all isolates of C. jeikeium, C. urealyticum and three isolates of C. striatum were resistant to penicillin, gentamicin, clindamycin, erythromycin, rifampin and imipenem. Five isolates of C. striatum showed variable susceptible to gentamicin, rifampin and imipenem, but all isolates of corynebacteria were susceptible to linezolid, tetracycline and vancomycin. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) using E-test strips (AB Biodisk, Sweden) for ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and moxifloxacin was performed according to BrCAST document. Due to absence of levofloxacin breakpoints in this guideline, the interpretation of values was interpreted in accordance to criteria defined by BrCAST for Staphylococcus spp. (Alibi et al. 2017).

The sequences of the QRDR of the gyrA gene were compared to that of the quinolone-susceptible type strains C. striatum ATCC 6940, C. jeikeium ATCC 43734 and C. urealyticum DSM 7109 (Table 1). All type strains have codons for Ser-87 and Asp-91 in the QRDR region of the gyrA gene. The MIC for fluoroquinolones were compared to the mutations in QRDR of the gyrA gene. All C. striatum isolates showed mutations in the codon 87, only two isolates showed double mutation in codons 87 and 91. Two C. jeikeium isolates showed MIC > 32 µg/mL for all fluoroquinolones tested probably due to novel mutations in the QRDR gyrA gene, where in the codon for Ser-87 changed to Ile-87 and the codon Asp-91 to Tyr-91. The three C. urealyticum isolates showed double mutation in codons 87 and 91. Two isolates showed mutation of Ser-87 to Tyr-87 and one isolate of Ser-87 toVal-87. The codon Asp-91 was changed to Ala-91 (two isolates) and Tyr-91 (one isolate). All C. urealyticum isolates showed MIC > 32 µg/mL to ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and moxifloxacin. All isolates Corynebacterium spp. with mutations in the codons 87 and 91 had the highest MIC for moxifloxacin.

Table 1 Relationship between mutations in the QRDR of the gyrA gene and the MIC for Corynebacterium spp
Full size table

Fluoroquinolones have been extensively used in the empirical treatment of urinary tract infections, including in Brazil (Hisano et al. 2015). These drugs accumulate in the organs of the body leading to the selection of spontaneous mutants in large populations that colonize the skin and mucous membranes, such as corynebacteria, which can cause nosocomial bacteremia (Sierra et al. 2005; Alibi et al. 2017). Studies have shown that increasing fluoroquinolones resistance rates in almost all bacterial species have limited empirical antimicrobial treatment options (Dalhoff 2012).

To our knowledge, no study comparing the mutations in the gyrA gene and the susceptibility to fluoroquinolones in C. urealyticum and C. jeikeium has been described. In summary, we report here the emergence of fluoroquinolone resistance in Corynebacterium species isolated from blood and catheter segments with novel mutations at amino acid positions 87 and 91 in QRDR gyrA gene producing high levels of resistance to ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin and moxifloxacin.