Abstract
The aac(6′)-Ib gene was detected in 86 of 555 (15.5%) Enterobacteriaceae isolates. Among these 86 aac(6′)-Ib-positive isolates, 19 (22.0%) were positive for aac(6′)-Ib-cr: 4 of 31 (12.9%) Enterobacter spp., 7 of 13 (53.8%) Escherichia coli isolates, and 8 of 42 (19.0%) Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. There was a strong association between aac(6′)-Ib-cr and OXA-1 and CTX-M-1 group β-lactamase genes. One aac(6′)-Ib-positive K. pneumoniae isolate carried both aac(6′)-Ib-cr and qnrS.
Plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance was first identified in a clinical isolate of Klebsiella pneumoniae (7, 12). Recently, a new mechanism of quinolone resistance was identified: transfer from species to species of a plasmid encoding aac(6′)-Ib-cr, a variant of aminoglycoside acetyltransferase that confers reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin by N-acetylation of the amino nitrogen on its piperazinyl substituent (13). Genes responsible for plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance are thought to be linked to extended-spectrum β-lactamase genes (2, 6).
In Korea, Qnr determinants from Enterobacteriaceae have been reported (4, 8), but the presence of aac(6′)-Ib-cr has not been reported. We therefore assessed the prevalence of aac(6′)-Ib-cr genes among clinical isolates of Enterobacteriaceae in Korea.
During the period from January 2005 to December 2006, 555 nonduplicate enterobacterial isolates were collected from blood cultures at Asan Medical Center, a 2,200-bed tertiary care teaching hospital in Seoul, Korea. Screening for aac(6′)-Ib was carried out by PCR amplification with the specific primers 5′-TTGCGATGCTCTATGAGTGGCTA-3′ and 5′-CTCGAATGCCTGGCGTGTTT-3′, to produce a 482-bp product (9). Of the 555 Enterobacteriaceae clinical isolates, 86 (15.5%) were positive for the aac(6′)-Ib gene: 31 of 149 (20.8%) Enterobacter spp., 13 of 204 (6.4%) Escherichia coli isolates, and 42 of 202 (20.8%) Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. Following digestion of the amplified products with BtsCI, we found that 19 of the 86 (22.0%) aac(6′)-Ib-positive isolates were positive for aac(6′)-Ib-cr: 4 of 31 (12.9%) Enterobacter spp. isolates, 7 of 13 (53.8%) E. coli isolates, and 8 of 42 (19.0%) K. pneumoniae isolates. The rate of aac(6′)-Ib-cr among aac(6′)-Ib-positive E. coli was higher than in aac(6′)-Ib-positive Enterobacter spp. and K. pneumoniae isolates. Random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis was performed by using a 254-decamer primer (5′-CCGCAGCCAA) to assess the clonal diversity (1). The 19 isolates gave 11 different patterns: 2 in Enterobacter cloacae, 3 in E. coli, and 6 in K. pneumoniae (Table 1).
TABLE 1.
Species and isolate | CIP MIC (μg/ml) | Mutation(s) in QRDRs
|
RAPD patterna | β-Lactamases | Resistance to antibioticsb | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
gyrA | parC | |||||
E. cloacae | ||||||
37 | 4 | Ser83Ile | Ser80Arg | I | CTX-M-3, OXA-1 | TOB, GEN, CTX, SXT |
101 | 8 | Ser83Ile | Ser80Ile | II | CTX-M-3, OXA-1 | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ, SXT |
153 | 8 | Ser83Ile | Ser80Ile | II | CTX-M-3, OXA-1 | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ, SXT |
165 | 8 | Ser83Ile | Ser80Ile | II | CTX-M-3, OXA-1 | CTX, CAZ, SXT |
E. coli | ||||||
17 | >16 | Ser83Leu, Asp87Asn | Ser80Ile, Glu84Val | III | CTX-M-15, OXA-1, TEM-1 | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ, SXT |
24 | >16 | Ser83Leu, Asp87Asn | Ser80Ile, Glu84Val | III | CTX-M-15, OXA-1, TEM-1 | TOB, CTX, CAZ |
47 | >16 | Ser83Leu, Asp87Asn | Ser80Ile | IV | CTX-M-15, OXA-1 | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ, SXT |
48 | >16 | Ser83Leu, Asp87Asn | Ser80Ile | V | CTX-M-15, OXA-1 | TOB, CTX, CAZ |
125 | >16 | Ser83Leu, Asp87Asn | Ser80Ile, Glu84Val | III | CTX-M-15, OXA-1, TEM-1 | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ |
130 | >16 | Ser83Leu, Asp87Asn | Ser80Ile | IV | CTX-M-15, OXA-1 | TOB, CTX, CAZ |
189 | >16 | Ser83Leu, Asp87Asn | Ser80Ile, Glu84Val | III | CTX-M-15, OXA-1, TEM-1 | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ |
K. pneumoniae | ||||||
78 | 1 | Ser83Tyr | VI | CTX-M-15, OXA-1, SHV | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ, SXT | |
80 | 1 | Ser83Tyr | VI | CTX-M-15, OXA-1, SHV | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ, SXT | |
110 | >16 | Ser83Ile | Ser80Ile | VII | OXA-1, SHV | TOB, GEN, CAZ, SXT |
132 | 0.125 | VIII | CTX-M-15, OXA-1, SHV | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ | ||
135 | >16 | Ser83Ile | Ser80Ile | IX | CTX-M-15, OXA-1, TEM-1, SHV | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ, SXT |
185 | 1 | Ser83Tyr | X | CTX-M-15, OXA-1, SHV | TOB, GEN, CTX, SXT | |
194 | 16 | Ser83Tyr | VI | CTX-M-15, OXA-1, SHV | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ, SXT | |
202 | >16 | Ser83Ile | Ser80Ile | XI | CTX-M-3, OXA-1, SHV | TOB, GEN, CTX, CAZ |
RAPD, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA.
CIP, ciprofloxacin; TOB, tobramycin; GEN, gentamicin; CTX, cefotaxime; CAZ, ceftazidime; SXT, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole.
We also assessed whether these Enterobacteriaceae clinical isolates possessed the three qnr genes by PCR, as described previously (14). Ten Enterobacter spp. were positive for qnrA; 3 Enterobacter spp. and 8 K. pneumoniae isolates were positive for qnrB; and 1 Enterobacter spp., 1 E. coli isolate, and 4 K. pneumoniae isolates were positive for qnrS. One or more qnr genes were present in 27 of the 555 (4.9%) isolates: 14 of 149 Enterobacter spp. (9.4%), 1 of 204 E. coli isolates (0.5%), and 12 of 202 K. pneumoniae isolates (5.9%). The rate of qnr carriage among Enterobacter spp. was higher than in E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates. One K. pneumoniae isolate (no. 135) contained both the aac(6′)-Ib-cr and qnrS genes; to our knowledge, this is the first such finding in a clinical isolate from Korea. The genetic structure between the aac(6′)-Ib-cr and qnrS genes in the K. pneumoniae no. 135 clinical isolate was determined by sequencing on plasmid DNA. Results showed that the β-lactamase-encoding genes blaOXA-1, blaCTX-M-15, and blaTEM-1 were detected between the aac(6′)-Ib-cr and qnrS genes, along with other genes (Fig. 1).
In Enterobacteriaceae isolates, aac(6′)-Ib-cr is linked to the extended-spectrum β-lactamase genes (2, 6). Using PCR and DNA sequencing as described previously (3, 5, 10), we determined whether β-lactamase genes were present in our isolates and analyzed whether they were TEM, SHV, CTX-M, or OXA types (Table 1). All of the aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive E. cloacae isolates produced CTX-M-3 and OXA-1. Most of the aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates produced CTX-M-15 and OXA-1, except for K. pneumoniae no. 202, which produced CTX-M-3 and OXA-1. Some isolates also produced TEM-1 as well as CTX-M-15 and OXA-1. One aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive K. pneumoniae isolate (no. 110) produced only OXA-1. These results showed that aac(6′)-Ib-cr is simultaneously associated with OXA-1 and CTX-M-1 (CTX-M-3 or CTX-M-15). No SHV-type gene was detected in any of the aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive E. cloacae or E. coli isolates.
The transferability of the aac(6′)-Ib-cr gene was determined by conjugation experiments using azide-resistant E. coli J53 Azir as the recipient. The aac(6′)-Ib-cr gene was successfully transferred from eight isolates, and its presence was confirmed in all eight transconjugants by PCR (Table 2). Most of the aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive isolates were resistant to gentamicin, tobramycin, and nalidixic acid, as well as ciprofloxacin. The MICs of ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin against transconjugants were two- to fourfold higher than for the recipient E. coli J53, indicating that aac(6′)-Ib-cr contributed to the decrease in ciprofloxacin susceptibility. The transconjugant for the aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive K. pneumoniae isolate 135, which carried both aac(6′)-Ib-cr and qnrS, showed a 32-fold increase in MIC for ciprofloxacin (1 μg/ml), the clinical breakpoint for susceptibility, compared with the MIC shown by the recipient E. coli J53. Thus, when both the aac(6′)-Ib-cr and qnr genes are present in the same cells, the level of resistance is much higher than that conferred by aac(6′)-Ib-cr alone.
TABLE 2.
Isolatea | MIC (μg/ml)b
|
|||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CIP | NOR | MXF | NAL | TOB | GEN | CAZ | CTX | |
E. cloacae 37 | 4 | >16 | 2 | >256 | >16 | >32 | 8 | 128 |
Tc Ecl 37 | 0.06 | 0.25 | 0.06 | 8 | >16 | >32 | 2 | 64 |
E. cloacae 101 | 8 | >16 | 4 | >256 | >16 | >32 | >32 | 256 |
Tc Ecl 101 | 0.06 | 0.25 | 0.06 | 8 | 2 | 0.25 | 2 | 32 |
E. cloacae 153 | 8 | >16 | 4 | >256 | >16 | >32 | >32 | 256 |
Tc Ecl 153 | 0.06 | 0.25 | 0.06 | 8 | >16 | >32 | 1 | 32 |
E. coli 17 | >16 | >16 | >16 | >256 | >16 | >32 | 32 | 256 |
Tc Eco 17 | 0.06 | 0.25 | 0.06 | 8 | 16 | 32 | 16 | 256 |
E. coli 48 | >16 | >16 | 16 | >256 | 16 | 0.25 | >32 | >256 |
Tc Eco 48 | 0.06 | 0.25 | 0.06 | 8 | 8 | 0.25 | >32 | >256 |
K. pneumoniae 132 | 0.125 | 0.5 | 0.125 | 8 | >16 | >32 | 32 | >256 |
Tc Kp 132 | 0.03 | 0.125 | 0.06 | 8 | 16 | 32 | 16 | >256 |
K. pneumoniae 135 | >16 | >16 | >16 | >256 | >16 | >32 | >32 | 256 |
Tc Kp 135 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 32 | >16 | >32 | >32 | 256 |
K. pneumoniae 202 | >16 | >16 | 16 | >256 | >16 | >32 | >32 | >256 |
Tc Kp 202 | 0.03 | 0.125 | 0.06 | 8 | >16 | >32 | 1 | 16 |
J53, recipient | 0.016 | 0.06 | 0.06 | 8 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.06 |
Tc, transconjugant.
CIP, ciprofloxacin; NOR, norfloxacin; MXF, moxifloxacin; NAL, nalidixic acid; TOB, tobramycin; GEN, gentamicin; CAZ, ceftazidime; CTX, cefotaxime.
Almost all aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive isolates contained a CTX-M-1 group β-lactamase gene, except for K. pneumoniae no. 110, which expressed only OXA-1. The cefotaxime MICs for such CTX-M-1-producing isolates were higher than those of ceftazidime, and this result was also found in their transconjugants (Table 2). The MICs of ceftazidime and cefotaxime for isolates producing CTX-M-3 were lower than those for isolates producing CTX-M-15 (Table 2). One amino acid difference at position 240 in CTX-M-15 was found to confer increased catalytic activity compared to that of CTX-M-3 (11).
The MICs of ciprofloxacin in aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive isolates were much higher than those for the corresponding transconjugants, with MICs of 1 to ≥ 32 μg/ml, except for K. pneumoniae no. 110 (0.125 μg/ml). To determine if any target modification occurred in aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive isolates, their quinolone resistance-determining regions (QRDRs) were sequenced. All aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive isolates had point mutations in the QRDRs of the gyrA gene, at codon 83 and/or codon 87, except for K. pneumoniae no. 110, which did not have mutations in the QRDRs of the gyrA or parC genes. All aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive E. cloacae and E. coli and three aac(6′)-Ib-cr-positive K. pneumoniae isolates had mutations in the QRDRs of the parC gene, at codon 80 and/or codon 84.
In conclusion, aac(6′)-Ib-cr was detected in three genera of Enterobacteriaceae (E. cloacae [four isolates], E. coli [seven isolates], and K. pneumoniae [eight isolates]), indicating horizontal transfer among the Enterobacteriaceae. The aac(6′)-Ib-cr gene showed a high association with β-lactamase genes, including OXA-1, CTX-M-3 or -15, and TEM-1, in isolates from Korea.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grant 2007-348 from the Asan Institute for Life Sciences, Seoul, Korea.
E.S.K. and J.-Y.J. contributed equally to this work.
Footnotes
Published ahead of print on 16 March 2009.
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