The Partner State Key Laboratory of Chirosciences at the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology (ABCT) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) discovered a newly emerged superbug, hyper-resistant and hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae, which may cause untreatable and fatal infections in relatively healthy individuals and will pose enormous threat to human health.
Prof. Chen Sheng, Professor of ABCT, collaborating with Prof. Rong Zhang from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, conducted an investigation into a fatal outbreak of pneumonia in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University in China in February 2016. The study involved five patients who underwent surgical operation for multiple-trauma. All of them were later infected in the intensive care unit (ICU) and developed severe pneumonia, and eventually died of septicaemia and multiple organ failure. The causative agent of these five patients was found to be a carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CRKP) strain, a type of previously-defined superbug. Furthermore, these CRKP strains are also hypervirulent and belong to ST11 type of CRKP, the most prevalent and transmissible CRKP strains in Asia. As these strains simultaneously exhibit the features of hyper-resistance, hypervirulence and high transmissibility, they can be considered a real superbug known as ST11 CR-HvKP (ST11 carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent K. pneumoniae).
ST11 K. pneumoniae strains proliferate in the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) of human and animals and may cause opportunistic infections such as pneumonia in clinical settings. These strains, after acquiring plasmid encoding a carbapenemase gene, become resistant to the carbapenem antibiotics and caused untreatable or hard-to-be treated infections, therefore defined as superbug. These superbug strains could further evolve to become ST11 CR-HvKP through acquisition of the hypervirulence plasmids. The ST11 CR-HvKP strains do not only infect lungs and cause pneumonia, but also invade the bloodstream and other internal organs. Due to its hypervirulence and phenotypic resistance to commonly used antibiotics, ST11 CR-HvKP strains may cause untreatable and fatal infections in relatively healthy individuals with normal immunity.
ST11 CR-HvKP strains possess a mucoid outer layer, which enables them to stick to various materials, such as the surface of medical devices and tubing as well as other surfaces in the ICU. The transmission route is not clear yet, but our data suggest that medical equipment such as ventilator and different catheters might be transmitting these new superbug strains. Human-to-human transmission may also be possible, mainly in hospital settings. Improved infection prevention and control policy in hospital seems to be effective to control further transmission of this superbug in the ICU. Novel strategies must be devised to prevent ST11 CR-HvKP from proliferating extensively in the human intestinal tract where they were detected. ST11 CR-HvKP can easily be detectable by the Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, targeting specific resistance and virulence genes. The study showed that the use of colistin (the last resort drug for carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae infections) alone or in combination with other drugs were not very effective in treating infections caused by ST11 CR-HvKP. Ceftazidime/avibactam may be the effective antibiotic, but ST11 CR-HvKP may develop resistance to this antibiotic very quickly based on the clinical data from the USA.
Prevalence of ST11 CR-HvKP strains in Hong Kong is currently unknown. Two studies conducted in Hong Kong have shown that mortality rate due to K. pneumoniae-mediated bloodstream infections was high, reaching 20% and 32% respectively. We plan to collaborate with clinicians in local hospitals to investigate the proportion of clinical K. pneumoniae isolates that belong to HvKP or CR-HvKP, and characterize their genetic features.
Learn more: PolyU discovers a newly emerged superbug — hyper-resistant and hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae
The Latest on: Klebsiella pneumoniae
- Study on imaging agent, patients with bacterial infectionson April 15, 2021 at 8:53 pm
An imaging agent allows scientists to better visualize Enterobacterales infections in patients helping to address pathogens that can be life-threatening and fr ...
- Researchers use imaging agent that enables better monitoring of patients with bacterial infectionson April 15, 2021 at 8:25 pm
Enterobacterales is the largest group of disease-causing bacteria in humans and includes common pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. These species have become ...
- Imaging agent enables better monitoring of patients with bacterial infectionson April 15, 2021 at 1:54 pm
Enterobacterales is the largest group of disease-causing bacteria in humans, and includes common pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. These species have ...
- Global Klebsiella Pneumoniae Infection Drug Market Outlook, Industry Analysis and Prospect 2021-2026on April 15, 2021 at 8:02 am
The Klebsiella Pneumoniae Infection Drug market report provides a detailed analysis of global market size, regional ...
- Exploiting bacterial 'sweet tooth' may help image and diagnose infectionson April 15, 2021 at 1:38 am
Klebsiella pneumoniae, a cause of pneumonia and a severe threat to patients weakened from COVID-19; and Yersinia pestis, the scourge behind the "Black Death" pandemic of plague in the 14th century ...
- Exploiting Bacterial ‘Sweet Tooth’ May Help Image and Diagnose Infectionson April 14, 2021 at 11:02 am
Three examples of a novel Johns Hopkins Medicine imaging method that can noninvasively detect and track infections by tagging an artificial ...
- Community-Acquired Klebsiella pneumoniae Bacteremia: Global Differences in Clinical Patternson March 30, 2021 at 5:00 pm
We initiated a worldwide collaborative study, including 455 episodes of bacteremia, to elucidate the clinical patterns of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Historically, community-acquired pneumonia has been ...
- Methylation analysis of Klebsiella pneumoniae from Portuguese hospitalson March 22, 2021 at 5:34 am
Seven of the eight samples had sufficient quality and coverage to perform DNA methylation analysis using the SMRT portal. For the other sample (Kp2564), we successfully identified methylation ...
- Health Ministry Needs Millions of NIS to Combat Deadly Bacteriaon February 17, 2021 at 4:10 pm
The bacterium, klebsiella pneumoniae, has infected more than 500 people and killed approximately one-third of those who became ill. Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Ben-Yizri said that ...
via Google News and Bing News
