AUTHOR=Hu Meimei , Sun Hongjia , Xu Yanmei , Xu Xiaoying 

TITLE=Antimicrobial susceptibility and genetic characteristics of multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolates in Northwest China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1293725

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2024.1293725

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>In recent decades, widespread multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria have become a serious problem in healthcare facilities.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>To systematically summarize and investigate the prevalence and genomic features of clinical MDR <italic>Acinetobacter baumannii</italic> (<italic>A. baumannii</italic>) clinical isolates recovered from the first hospital of Lanzhou University, we collected 50 MDR <italic>A. baumannii</italic> isolates isolated in the first quarter of 2022 and using whole-genome sequencing investigate the genotypic characteristics.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>All of these isolates were generally resistant to the common β-lactamase antibiotics. Resistance to cefoperazone-sulbactam varies greatly between different clones. The proportion of CC208 isolates resistant and mediated to cefoperazone-sulbactam is as high as 84.6%. There were no isolates resistant to tigecycline and colistin. The presence of <italic>bla</italic><sub>OXA − 23</sub> (94.0%) and <italic>bla</italic><sub>OXA − 66</sub> (98.0%) were the most frequent determinants for carbapenem resistance. Two main endemic clones were identified, one (ST469<sup>oxf</sup>) was predominantly circulating in ICUs and carried the same resistance genes, virulence genes and transposons, and the other clone (CC208) carried more resistance genes and had more widely disseminated.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>Our study showed that clinical MDR <italic>A. baumannii</italic> isolates circulating in our hospital exhibited highly similar genetic features. We should take timely and effective measures to control the further epidemic of these isolates.</p></sec>