Analysis of molecular and clinical characteristics of carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae in the intensive care unit / 中华预防医学杂志

ABSTRACT

To investigate the carbapenemases distribution of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) in the intensive care unit, and the clinical characteristics between carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (CR-hvKP) and carbapenem-resistant non-hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (CR-non-hvKP) were compared. A total of 53 non-repetitive CRKP strains isolated from 49 patients in the intensive care unit of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University from May 2020 to March 2021 were retrospectively studied. The carbapenemase inhibitor enhancement test was used for screening carbapenemase-producing strains, and the string test was carried out to screen the hypermucoviscosity phenotype. Using PCR to detect five main carbapenemase genes (blaKPC-2, blaNDM, blaIMP , blaVIM and blaOXA-48-like), common serotype (K1 and K2) and virulence gene (rmpA and iutA). Treated the strains with both rmpA and iutA genes as hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumonia (hvKP), and the whole genome sequencing of CR-hvKP was completed. At the same time, the clinical data of 49 patients were sorted out, and the differences in clinical characteristics of CR-hvKP and CR-non-hvKP infected patients were compared using the independent sample t test, Mann-Whitney U test, chi-square test or Fisher's exact probability test. CRKP isolated from the intensive care unit were extensively drug resistance and still had a good sensitivity to polymyxin B and tigecycline. Producing carbapenemases were the main resistance mechanism of CRKP (52/53, 98.1%). Of the 53 CRKP strains, except for 1strain that did not detect carbapenemase, at least one carbapenemase resistance gene was detected in the remaining 52 CRKP strains, of which 45 strains carried an enzyme, including 36 blaKPC-2 (36/53, 67.9%), 8 blaNDM (8/53, 15.1%), 1 blaIMP (1/53, 1.9%), and 7 strains carried with both blaKPC-2 and blaNDM (7/53, 13.2%). String test and virulence gene showed that 7 CR-hvKP strains (13.2%) were detected in 53 CRKP strains, and two of which were hypermucoviscosity phenotype. Sequencing results revealed that CR-hvKP were mainly ST11 type. Almost all patients with CR-hvKP infection were over 60 years old (7/7), with invasive treatment (7/7), pulmonary infection with hypermucoviscosity phenotype (2/7) and high mortality (5/7); and the percentage of neutrophils in patients with CR-hvKP infection (86.44±4.70) % was higher than those patients with CR-non-hvKP infection (78.90±19.15) %, the difference was statistically significant (t=-2.225, P=0.032). The CR-hvKP strains in the intensive care unit mainly produced KPC-2 enzyme, with K2 capsular serotype and ST11 type. It is necessary to strengthen the monitoring and control of the CR-hvKP strain to prevent the co-evolution of drug-resistant and hypervirulent strains.