Emergence of Acinetobacter pittii Harboring New Delhi Metallo-β-Lactamase Genes in Daejeon, Korea

• Published in: Annals of laboratory medicine Vol. 35; no. 5; pp. 531 - 534
• Main Authors: Sung, Ji Youn, Koo, Sun Hoe, Kim, Semi, Kwon, Gye Cheol
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea (South) The Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine 01.09.2015; 대한진단검사의학회
• Subjects: Acinetobacter - drug effects; Acinetobacter - enzymology; Acinetobacter - isolation & purification; Acinetobacter Infections - diagnosis; Acinetobacter Infections - microbiology; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; beta-Lactamases - genetics; beta-Lactamases - metabolism; Brief Communication; Disk Diffusion Antimicrobial Tests; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Humans; Imipenem - pharmacology; Multilocus Sequence Typing; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction; Republic of Korea; Thienamycins - pharmacology; 병리학; NDM-1; Carbapenem; Metallo-β-lactamase; A. pittii
• ISSN: 2234-3806; 2234-3814
• DOI: 10.3343/alm.2015.35.5.531

Carbapenemase production has been reported worldwide in gram-negative bacteria, including Acinetobacter species. We detected carbapenemase-producing Acinetobacter pittii in clinical isolates in Daejeon, Korea. Twenty-one ertapenem-resistant A. pittii isolates screened with a disk diffusion method were characterized by using the Epsilon test, four multiplex PCR assays, and a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme. A total of 21 A. pittii isolates harbored the metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) gene bla(IMP-1) or bla(NDM-1). Nineteen isolates containing bla(IMP-1) were resistant to imipenem and meropenem, but two isolates harboring bla(NDM-1) were susceptible to them. The sequence types (STs) of the two New Delhi MBL (NDM-1)-producing A. pittii isolates were ST70 and ST207, which differed from the STs (ST63, ST119, ST396, and a novel ST) of the IMP-1-producing A. pittii. This is the first report on NDM-1-producing A. pittii isolates in Korea. Our results emphasize that the study of NDM-1-producing gram-negative bacteria should involve carbapenem-susceptible as well as carbapenem-resistant isolates.