Transferable AmpCs in Klebsiella pneumoniae: interplay with peptidoglycan recycling, mechanisms of hyperproduction, and virulence implicationsShow others and affiliations
2024 (English)In: Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, ISSN 0066-4804, E-ISSN 1098-6596, Vol. 68, no 5, article id e0131523Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Chromosomal and transferable AmpC β-lactamases represent top resistance mechanisms in different gram-negatives, but knowledge regarding the latter, mostly concerning regulation and virulence-related implications, is far from being complete. To fill this gap, we used Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP) and two different plasmid-encoded AmpCs [DHA-1 (AmpR regulator linked, inducible) and CMY-2 (constitutive)] as models to perform a study in which we show that blockade of peptidoglycan recycling through AmpG permease inactivation abolished DHA-1 inducibility but did not affect CMY-2 production and neither did it alter KP pathogenic behavior. Moreover, whereas regular production of both AmpC-type enzymes did not attenuate KP virulence, when blaDHA-1 was expressed in an ampG-defective mutant, Galleria mellonella killing was significantly (but not drastically) attenuated. Spontaneous DHA-1 hyperproducer mutants were readily obtained in vitro, showing slight or insignificant virulence attenuations together with high-level resistance to β-lactams only mildly affected by basal production (e.g., ceftazidime, ceftolozane/tazobactam). By analyzing diverse DHA-1-harboring clinical KP strains, we demonstrate that the natural selection of these hyperproducers is not exceptional (>10% of the collection), whereas mutational inactivation of the typical AmpC hyperproduction-related gene mpl was the most frequent underlying mechanism. The potential silent dissemination of this kind of strains, for which an important fitness cost-related contention barrier does not seem to exist, is envisaged as a neglected threat for most β-lactams effectiveness, including recently introduced combinations. Analyzing whether this phenomenon is applicable to other transferable β-lactamases and species as well as determining the levels of conferred resistance poses an essential topic to be addressed.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Society for Microbiology, 2024. Vol. 68, no 5, article id e0131523
Keywords [en]
AmpR regulator, blaCMY-2, blaDHA-1, Galleria mellonella, Klebsiella pneumoniae, peptidoglycan recycling, transferable AmpC β-lactamases, virulence
National Category
Microbiology in the medical area Infectious Medicine
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-225507DOI: 10.1128/aac.01315-23ISI: 001189246500001PubMedID: 38517189Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85189494485OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-225507DiVA, id: diva2:1867085
Funder
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)2024-06-102024-06-102024-07-12Bibliographically approved