Infection, Colonization, and Spread of Drug-Resistant Bacteria

A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2024) | Viewed by 2298

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Interests: antibiotic resistance; infection disease; molecular epidemiology; population health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Drug resistance is a global challenge to public health and development, posing a significant threat by escalating the risk of disease transmission, severe illness, disability, and death. In 2019, it was estimated that bacterial drug resistance contributed to almost 5 million deaths worldwide. This peril is exacerbated by human activity, particularly the misuse and overuse of drugs in treating, preventing, or controlling infections across humans, animals, and plants. Among the most prevalent types are third-generation, cephalosporin-resistant E. coli and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Addressing drug resistance necessitates a multifaceted approach, involving targeted actions across various sectors, including human health, food production, animal welfare, and environmental stewardship. Key priorities in combating drug resistance within human health include preventing infections to curtail inappropriate antimicrobial use, ensuring widespread access to accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment, and fostering strategic initiatives such as surveillance programs to monitor drug resistance patterns and antimicrobial consumption. Additionally, promoting research and development for innovative vaccines, diagnostics, and medicines is crucial.

Despite these efforts, addressing the unequal impact of drug resistance across different populations remains a challenge, largely due to insufficient understanding of its molecular characteristics and limited data availability, including disaggregated data based on age, gender, socioeconomic status, and other pertinent factors. Moreover, significant knowledge gaps persist, hindering the formulation of evidence-based strategies to effectively combat drug resistance.

In this Special Issue, advancements in comprehending the ecology, physiology, genetics, and epidemiology of drug-resistant bacteria will be showcased. Utilizing both classic and molecular genetic methodologies, these advancements aim to provide insights that can facilitate the manipulation of selected organisms for various biotechnological applications, including bioremediation, biofuel production, and pharmaceutical development.

Dr. Jialing Lin
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • antibiotic resistance
  • bacterial infection
  • bacterial colonization
  • bacterial spread
  • hospital-acquired infections
  • community-acquired infections

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 1458 KiB  
Article
Genetic Insights on Meropenem Resistance Concerning Klebsiella pneumoniae Clinical Isolates
by Fathy M. Elkady, Bahaa M. Badr, Abdel-Aty E. Alfeky, Mohammed S. Abdulrahman, Amr H. Hashem, Abdulaziz A. Al-Askar, Gehad AbdElgayed and Hany R. Hashem
Life 2024, 14(11), 1408; https://doi.org/10.3390/life14111408 - 1 Nov 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1918
Abstract
The transferable genetic elements are associated with the dissemination of virulence determinants amongst Klebsiella pneumoniae. Thus, we assessed the correlated antimicrobial resistance in carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical isolates. Each isolate’s ability to biosynthesize biofilm, carbapenemase, and extended-spectrum β-lactamase were examined. Genotypically, the [...] Read more.
The transferable genetic elements are associated with the dissemination of virulence determinants amongst Klebsiella pneumoniae. Thus, we assessed the correlated antimicrobial resistance in carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical isolates. Each isolate’s ability to biosynthesize biofilm, carbapenemase, and extended-spectrum β-lactamase were examined. Genotypically, the biofilm-, outer membrane porin-, and some plasmid-correlated antimicrobial resistance genes were screened. About 50% of the isolates were multidrug-resistant while 98.4% were extended-spectrum β-lactamase producers and 89.3% were carbapenem-resistant. Unfortunately, 93.1% of the multidrug-resistant isolates produced different biofilm levels. Additionally, fimD and mrkD genes encoding adhesins were detected in 100% and 55.2% of the tested isolates, respectively. Also, the blaKPC, blaOXA-48-like, and blaNDM-encoding carbapenemases were observed in 16.1%, 53.6%, and 55.4% of the tested isolates, respectively. Moreover, the blaSHV and blaCTX-M extended-spectrum β-lactamase-associated genes were detected at 95.2% and 61.3%, respectively. Furthermore, aac(3)IIa, qnrB, and tetB resistance-correlated genes were observed in 38.1%, 46%, and 7.9% of the tested isolates, respectively. Certainly, the tested antimicrobial resistance-encoding genes were concurrently observed in 3.2% of the tested isolates. These findings confirmed the elevated prevalence of various antimicrobial resistance-associated genes in Klebsiella pneumoniae. The concurrent transferring of plasmid-encoding antimicrobial resistance-related genes could be associated with the possible acquisition of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae phenotypes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Infection, Colonization, and Spread of Drug-Resistant Bacteria)
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