scholarly journals Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Phage for Controlling Multidrug-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qin Peng ◽  
Meng Fang ◽  
Xushan Liu ◽  
Chunling Zhang ◽  
Yue Liu ◽  
...  

The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens has severely threatened global health. A phage with the ability to efficiently and specifically lyse bacteria is considered an alternative for controlling multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens. The discovery of novel agents for controlling the infections caused by K. pneumoniae is urgent due to the broad multidrug-resistance of K. pneumoniae. Only a few phage isolates have been reported to infect multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae. In this study, by using the multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae strain as an indicator, a novel phage called vB_KleS-HSE3, which maintains high antibacterial activity and high physical stability, was isolated from hospital sewage. This phage infected one of four tested multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae strains. This phage belongs to the Siphoviridae family and a comparative genomic analysis showed that this phage is part of a novel phage lineage among the Siphoviridae family of phages that infect strains of Klebsiella. Based on its features, the vB_KleS-HSE3 phage has potential for controlling infections caused by multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Mariita ◽  
Mohammad J. Hossain ◽  
Anthony G. Moss

AbstractHere, we describe the isolation and characterization of a coagulase-negative, vancomycin and oxacillin-susceptible novel bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus. Staphylococcus sp. strain AOAB was isolated from the stomodeum (gut) of the Mnemiopsis leidyi from Mobile Bay, Alabama USA. A polyphasic taxonomic approach comprised of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genotypic characteristics was used for analysis. The dominant respiratory quinone detected was MK-7 (100%). Major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C15:0 (40.52%), anteiso-C17:0 (13.04 %), C-18:0 (11.53%) and C-20:0 (10.45%). The polar lipid profile consisted of glycolipid, phospholipid, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. Although strain AOAB had a 16SrRNA gene sequence similarity of 99% with S. warneri SG1, S. pasteuri, S. devriesei KS-SP_60, S. lugdunensis HKU09-01, S. epidermidis RP62A, S. haemolyticus JCSC1435 and S. hominis DM 122, it was be distinguished from those species based on Multi-Locus Sequence Analysis (MLSA) using 6 marker genes (16S rRNA, hsp60, rpoB, dnaJ, sodA and tuf). MLSA revealed strain AOAB to be closely related to S. warneri SG1 and S. pasteuri SP1 but distinct from two hitherto known species. These results were confirmed by Average Nucleotide Identity (closest ANI of 84.93% and 84.58% identity against S. warneri SG1 and S. pasteuri SP1 respectively). In-silico DNA-DNA hybridization was <70% (33.1 % and 32.8% against S. warneri SG1 and S. pasteuri SP1 respectively), which further confirmed that the strain was a potential novel Staphylococcus species.


Author(s):  
Jing-chang Luo ◽  
Hao Long ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Yan Zhao ◽  
Li Sun

Bacillus toyonensis is a group of Gram-positive bacteria belonging to the Bacillus cereus group and used in some cases as probiotics or biocontrol agents. To our knowledge, B. toyonensis from the deep sea (depth &gt;1,000 m) has not been documented. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of a B. toyonensis strain, P18, from a deep sea hydrothermal field. P18 is aerobic, motile, and able to grow at low temperatures (4°C) and high concentrations of NaCl (8%). P18 possesses a circular chromosome of 5,250,895 bp and a plasmid of 536,892 bp, which encode 5,380 and 523 genes, respectively. Of these genes, 2,229 encode hypothetical proteins that could not be annotated based on the COG database. Comparative genomic analysis showed that P18 is most closely related to the type strain of B. toyonensis, BCT-7112T. Compared to BCT-7112T, P18 contains 1,401 unique genes, 441 of which were classified into 20 COG functional categories, and the remaining 960 genes could not be annotated. A total of 319 putative virulence genes were identified in P18, including toxin-related genes, and 24 of these genes are absent in BCT-7112T. P18 exerted strong cytopathic effects on fish and mammalian cells that led to rapid cell death. When inoculated via injection into fish and mice, P18 rapidly disseminated in host tissues and induced acute infection and mortality. Histopathology revealed varying degrees of tissue lesions in the infected animals. Furthermore, P18 could survive in fish and mouse sera and possessed hemolytic activity. Taken together, these results provide the first evidence that virulent B. toyonensis exists in deep sea environments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 423
Author(s):  
Ahmed Esmael ◽  
Ehab Azab ◽  
Adil A. Gobouri ◽  
Mohamed A. Nasr-Eldin ◽  
Mahmoud M. A. Moustafa ◽  
...  

Foodborne salmonellosis is a global threat to public health. In the current study, we describe the isolation and characterization of two broad-spectrum, lytic Salmonella phages: SPHG1 and SPHG3 infecting a multidrug-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium EG.SmT3. Electron microscopy and whole genome analysis identified SPHG1 as a Myovirus, while SPHG3 as a new member of the genus “Kuttervirus” within the family Ackermannviridae. SPHG1 and SPHG3 had a lysis time of 60 min. with burst sizes of 104 and 138 PFU/cell, respectively. The two phages were robust at variable temperatures and pH ranges that match the corresponding values of most of the food storage and processing conditions. A phage cocktail containing the two phages was stable in the tested food articles for up to 48 h. The application of the phage cocktail at MOIs of 1000 or 100 resulted in a significant reduction in the viable count of S. Typhimurium by 4.2 log10/sample in milk, water, and on chicken breast. Additionally, the phage cocktail showed a prospective ability to eradicate and reduce the biofilm that formed by S. Typhimurium EG.SmT3. A phage cocktail of SPHG1 and SPHG3 is considered as a promising candidate as a biocontrol agent against foodborne salmonellosis due to its broad host ranges, highly lytic activities, and the absence of any virulence or lysogeny-related genes in their genomes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen P. Carter ◽  
James E. Ussher ◽  
Anders Gonçalves Da Silva ◽  
Sarah L. Baines ◽  
Helen Heffernan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), such as Staphylococcus capitis, are major causes of bloodstream infections in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Recently, a distinct clone of S. capitis (designated S. capitis NRCS-A) has emerged as an important pathogen in NICUs internationally. Here, 122 S. capitis isolates from New Zealand (NZ) underwent whole-genome sequencing (WGS), and these data were supplemented with publicly available S. capitis sequence reads. Phylogenetic and comparative genomic analyses were performed, as were phenotypic assessments of antimicrobial resistance, biofilm formation, and plasmid segregational stability on representative isolates. A distinct lineage of S. capitis was identified in NZ associated with neonates and the NICU environment. Isolates from this lineage produced increased levels of biofilm, displayed higher levels of tolerance to chlorhexidine, and were multidrug resistant. Although similar to globally circulating NICU-associated S. capitis strains at a core-genome level, NZ NICU S. capitis isolates carried a novel stably maintained multidrug-resistant plasmid that was not present in non-NICU isolates. Neonatal blood culture isolates were indistinguishable from environmental S. capitis isolates found on fomites, such as stethoscopes and neonatal incubators, but were generally distinct from those isolates carried by NICU staff. This work implicates the NICU environment as a potential reservoir for neonatal sepsis caused by S. capitis and highlights the capacity of genomics-based tracking and surveillance to inform future hospital infection control practices aimed at containing the spread of this important neonatal pathogen.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 3160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pilar Domingo-Calap ◽  
Beatriz Beamud ◽  
Lucas Mora-Quilis ◽  
Fernando González-Candelas ◽  
Rafael Sanjuán

The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria is a major global health concern. The search for new therapies has brought bacteriophages into the spotlight, and new phages are being described as possible therapeutic agents. Among the bacteria that are most extensively resistant to current antibiotics is Klebsiella pneumoniae, whose hypervariable extracellular capsule makes treatment particularly difficult. Here, we describe two new K. pneumoniae phages, πVLC5 and πVLC6, isolated from environmental samples. These phages belong to the genus Drulisvirus within the family Podoviridae. Both phages encode a similar tail spike protein with putative depolymerase activity, which is shared among other related phages and probably determines their ability to specifically infect K. pneumoniae capsular types K22 and K37. In addition, we found that phage πVLC6 also infects capsular type K13 and is capable of striping the capsules of K. pneumoniae KL2 and KL3, although the phage was not infectious in these two strains. Genome sequence analysis suggested that the extended tropism of phage πVLC6 is conferred by a second, divergent depolymerase. Phage πVLC5 encodes yet another putative depolymerase, but we found no activity of this phage against capsular types other than K22 and K37, after testing a panel of 77 reference strains. Overall, our results confirm that most phages productively infected one or few Klebsiella capsular types. This constitutes an important challenge for clinical applications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
Jorge Arca-Suárez ◽  
Cristina Lasarte-Monterrubio ◽  
Bruno-Kotska Rodiño-Janeiro ◽  
Gabriel Cabot ◽  
Juan Carlos Vázquez-Ucha ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The development of resistance to ceftolozane/tazobactam and ceftazidime/avibactam during treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections is concerning. Objectives Characterization of the mechanisms leading to the development of OXA-10-mediated resistance to ceftolozane/tazobactam and ceftazidime/avibactam during treatment of XDR P. aeruginosa infections. Methods Four paired ceftolozane/tazobactam- and ceftazidime/avibactam-susceptible/resistant isolates were evaluated. MICs were determined by broth microdilution. STs, resistance mechanisms and genetic context of β-lactamases were determined by genotypic methods, including WGS. The OXA-10 variants were cloned in PAO1 to assess their impact on resistance. Models for the OXA-10 derivatives were constructed to evaluate the structural impact of the amino acid changes. Results The same XDR ST253 P. aeruginosa clone was detected in all four cases evaluated. All initial isolates showed OprD deficiency, produced an OXA-10 enzyme and were susceptible to ceftazidime, ceftolozane/tazobactam, ceftazidime/avibactam and colistin. During treatment, the isolates developed resistance to all cephalosporins. Comparative genomic analysis revealed that the evolved resistant isolates had acquired mutations in the OXA-10 enzyme: OXA-14 (Gly157Asp), OXA-794 (Trp154Cys), OXA-795 (ΔPhe153-Trp154) and OXA-824 (Asn143Lys). PAO1 transformants producing the evolved OXA-10 derivatives showed enhanced ceftolozane/tazobactam and ceftazidime/avibactam resistance but decreased meropenem MICs in a PAO1 background. Imipenem/relebactam retained activity against all strains. Homology models revealed important changes in regions adjacent to the active site of the OXA-10 enzyme. The blaOXA-10 gene was plasmid borne and acquired due to transposition of Tn6746 in the pHUPM plasmid scaffold. Conclusions Modification of OXA-10 is a mechanism involved in the in vivo acquisition of resistance to cephalosporin/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations in P. aeruginosa.


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