Bacteriocin production facilitates nosocomial emergence of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium.
medRxiv
; 2024 Aug 03.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39132485
ABSTRACT
Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) is a prevalent healthcare-acquired pathogen. Gastrointestinal colonization can lead to difficult-to-treat bloodstream infections with high mortality rates. Prior studies have investigated VREfm population structure within healthcare centers. However, little is known about how and why hospital-adapted VREfm populations change over time. We sequenced 710 healthcare-associated VREfm clinical isolates from 2017-2022 from a large tertiary care center as part of the Enhanced Detection System for Healthcare-Associated Transmission (EDS-HAT) program. Although the VREfm population in our center was polyclonal, 46% of isolates formed genetically related clusters, suggesting a high transmission rate. We compared our collection to 15,631 publicly available VREfm genomes spanning 20 years. Our findings describe a drastic shift in lineage replacement within nosocomial VREfm populations at both the local and global level. Functional and genomic analysis revealed, antimicrobial peptide, bacteriocin T8 may be a driving feature of strain emergence and persistence in the hospital setting. Summary:
This study shows local and global lineage replacement of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium . Bacteriocin T8 is enriched in emergent lineages and provides a strong competitive advantage in vitro and in vivo .
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
MedRxiv
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article