Study of antibiotic resistance and beta-lactamase activity of Klebsiella bacterial strains isolated from different clinical samples

Author: Tata Ninidze
Keywords: Beta-lactamases, Klebsiella, antibiotic resistance
Annotation:

Spread of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains and finding the ways to fight against them is a worldwide problem. Klebsiella genus bacteria are the leading pathogenic organisms in nosocomial infections and are associated with several infections including pneumonia, urine tract infections, bacterial meningitis and nosocomial diseases. Klebsiella species have shown resistance to last generation antibiotics, and thus treatment of infections caused by such multidrug resistant bacterial strains is getting complicated. During the evolution, pathogenic bacteria have developed different mechanisms to protect themselves from antibiotics. One of the most frequent mechanisms of bacteria is inactivation of antimicrobial agents using special enzymes. In Gram-negative bacteria, including Klebsiella species, the most common enzymes to inactivate antibiotics are Extended Spectrum beta-Lactamases (ESBLs), which are able to hydrolyze amino bonds in the structure of antibiotics, inactivate those and lead to formation of resistance of microorganisms against such antibiotics. In addition, the more often antibiotics are used, the more hydrolyze activity of beta-lactamases grows and the more resistant mutants are emerged. According to the World health organization (WHO) recommendations, effective way to defeat multidrug resistant bacterial strains causing infectious diseases is to record the data on spreading resistance among the patients and detection of factors of resistance. The aim of the study was to examine antibiotic profiles and beta-lactamase activity of Klebsiella strains isolated from different clinical samples of Georgian and foreign patients and to genotype and examine plasmid content of multidrug resistant strains. To achieve the goal we examined antibiotic susceptibility and beta-lactamase activity of 74 Klebsiella clinical strains using disc diffusion method and genotyped multidrug resistant strains using PFGE, also we learned their plasmid content. According to our results, Klebsiella clinical strains showed 100% resistance to 5 groups of used antibiotics: beta-lactams, lincozamides, macrolides, polypeptides and rifampicin. 19% of strains showed resistance to chloramphenicol, also clinical strains showed different percentage of resistance to ciprofloxacin (34%), tetracycline (31%) and aminoglycosides (49%). Most of the strains showed beta-lactamase activity. The strains showed genetic biodiversity on both- genus and species levels. The results of the study are important as it will fill data about antibiotic resistant and beta-lactamase producing Klebsiella strains, and it would help to develop strategies to solve the problem.