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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Antibiotic Resistance and New Antimicrobial drugs
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1519827

Policlonal carbapenemase-producing Escherichia coli in Northern Italy: the emergence of NDM-7

Provisionally accepted
Vittoria Mattioni Marchetti Vittoria Mattioni Marchetti 1,2Marta CORBELLA Marta CORBELLA 3Aurora Piazza Aurora Piazza 1,4*Stefano Gaiarsa Stefano Gaiarsa 3Irene Mileto Irene Mileto 2,3Cristina Merla Cristina Merla 3Angela Kuka Angela Kuka 3Aseel Abualshaar Aseel Abualshaar 5Patrizia Cambieri Patrizia Cambieri 3Roberta Migliavacca Roberta Migliavacca 1Fausto Baldanti Fausto Baldanti 1,3
  • 1 Department of Clinical-Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Lombardy, Italy
  • 2 Specialization School of Microbiology and Virology, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, Pavia, Italy
  • 3 Microbiology and Virology Unit, IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy, Pavia, Italy
  • 4 IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy, Pavia, Italy
  • 5 Department of Biology and Biotechnology, American University of Madaba-Madaba-Jordan, Amman, Jordan, Amman, Jordan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The spread of ESBL-and carbapenemase-producing E. coli clones in humans, animals and environment are of great concern worldwide. In this study, we characterized four carbapenemase-producing E. coli (CP-Ec) isolated from human samples. Two isolates of ST401, rarely associated with carbapenemase and/or ESBLresistance genes, harbored blaKPC-3 and blaVIM-1 genes respectively, and were genetically distant from each other. One CP-Ec isolate belonged to ST355, typically found in poultry and environmental sources and not associated with carbapenemases, was blaKPC-3 positive and showed a wide range of virulence genes. The last CP-Ec strain belonged to ST3564, previously described in livestock with a large virulome but no carbapenemase. The CP-Ec ST3564 isolate co-harbored blaVIM-1 and blaNDM-7 genes, which, to our knowledge, has not been previously reported in Italy. These results emphasize the crucial role of a genomicbased surveillance program to intercept the emergence of critical E. coli clones.

    Keywords: NDM-7, Escherichia coli, carbapenemases, IncX3, WGS, ST401, ST355, Virulence

    Received: 30 Oct 2024; Accepted: 09 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Mattioni Marchetti, CORBELLA, Piazza, Gaiarsa, Mileto, Merla, Kuka, Abualshaar, Cambieri, Migliavacca and Baldanti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Aurora Piazza, Department of Clinical-Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, 27100, Lombardy, Italy

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