Prevalence of Antimicrobial Resistance and Virulent Genes in Hypervirulent Klebsiella Pneumonia Isolates

Authors

Abstract

Objective: To determine the antimicrobial resistance and virulence of hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae by phenotypic and genotypic methods.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study done for 6 months at Microbiology department, King Edward Medical University, Lahore. Antimicrobial susceptibility of 76 isolates was assessed,phenotypic string test was performed to check the hypermucoviscosity, and the presence of carbapenem resistance. Presence of genes i.e. New Delhi metallo-β lactamase-1 (NDM1), extended-spectrum β-lactamase (blaCTX-M-15) and iron uptake chelate A (iucA) encoding aerobactin responsible for virulence was established by PCR.

Results

  Out of 76 patients, 54(71%) were males and 22(29%) were females. Among these 76 isolates 99.5% were Polymyxin B, Colistin (PB, CT) susceptible, 2.6% were gentamycin (CN) and Cefoperazone/sulbactam (SCF) susceptible, 46.1% had Imipenem (IPM) susceptibility and 18.4% had overall susceptibility of PB, CT, IPM, SCF & CN. Whereas, 78.9% isolates showed positive string test. The percentages of genes present were 68.4% iucA, 40.8% blaCTX-M-15 and 19.7% blaNDM. The association of positive string test with the presence of virulent genes was statistically borderline significant for blaCTX-M-15 and significant for blaNDM.

Conclusion

 All the genes analyzed in hvKp isolates including NDM1, blaCTX-M-15 and iucA were prevailing with iucA(78.9%) being most prevalent. In addition to it carbapenems resistance was found to be increasing in hvKp in our study.

Keywords:

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae, antimicrobial resistance, prevalence

Published

2026/06/03

Issue

Vol. Volume 7-issue 2

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