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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Antimicrobials, Resistance and Chemotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1431154
This article is part of the Research Topic Opportunistic pathogens: pathogenesis and multi-drug resistance mechanisms View all articles

Molecular epidemiology and carbapenem resistance mechanisms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from a hospital in Fujian, China

Provisionally accepted
Xueqin Xie Xueqin Xie 1*Zhou Liu Zhou Liu 1Jingyan Huang Jingyan Huang 1Xueting Wang Xueting Wang 1Yuting Tian Yuting Tian 1Pinying Xu Pinying Xu 1Gangsen Zheng Gangsen Zheng 2
  • 1 Xiamen Medical College, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China
  • 2 First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China

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

    The worldwide spread of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, especially carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa (CRPA), poses a serious threat to global public health. In this research, we collected and studied the clinical prevalence, molecular epidemiology, and resistance mechanisms of CRPA in Fujian, China. Among 167 non-duplicated P. aeruginosa isolates collected during 2019-2021, strains from respiratory specimens and wound secretions of older males in the intensive care unit dominated. Ninety-eight isolates (58.7 %) were resistant to at least one tested antibiotic, among which 70 strains were carbapenem-resistant. Moleclar typing of the CRPA isolates revealed they were highly divergent, belonging to 46 different sequence types. It is noteworthy that two previously reported high risk clones, ST1971 specific to China and the globally prevalent ST357, were found. Several carbapenem resistance-related characteristics were also explored in 70 CRPA isolates.Firstly, carbapenemase was phenotypically positive in 22.9 % of CRPA, genetically predominant by metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) and co-carrige of different carbapenemase genes. Then, mutations of the carbapenem-specific porins oprD and opdP were commonly observed, with frequencies of 97.1 % and 100.0 %, respectively.Furthermore, the biofilm formation and relative transcription levels of 8 multidrug efflux pump genes were also found to be increased in 48.6 % and 72.9 % of CRPA isolates compared to the reference strain PAO1. These findings will help fill the data gaps in molecular characteristics of CRPA on the southeastern coast of China and emphasize the urgent need for data-based specific stewardship for antipseudomonal practices to prevent the dissemination of CRPA.

    Keywords: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Multilocus Sequence Typing, carbapenemase, porins mutation, Biofilm, Multidrug efflux pump genes

    Received: 11 May 2024; Accepted: 05 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Xie, Liu, Huang, Wang, Tian, Xu and Zheng. 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: Xueqin Xie, Xiamen Medical College, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China

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