2013

Moon Jung Kim, Il Kwon Bae, Seok Hoon Jeong, So Hyun Kim, Jae Hoon Song, Jae Young Choi, Sang Sun Yoon, Visanu Thamlikitkul, Po-Ren Hsueh, Rohani Md Yasin, MK Lalitha and Kyungwon Lee (2013). Dissemination of metallo-beta-lactamase-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa of sequence type 235 in Asian countries. Journal of Antomicrobial Chemotherapy 28(12): 2820-2824

Objectives: To investigate the epidemiological traits of metallo-β-lactamase (MBL)-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MPPA) clinical isolates collected by the Asian Network for Surveillance of Resistant Pathogens (ANSORP).

Methods: A total of 16 MPPA clinical isolates were collected from six Asian countries in 2000 to 2009 by ANSORP. The MBL gene was detected by PCR amplification. The genetic organization of the class 1 integron carrying the MBL gene cassette was investigated by PCR mapping and sequencing. Southern blotting, repetitive sequence-based PCR and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) experiments were performed to characterize the isolates.

Results: PCR and sequencing experiments detected the bla_VIM-2 (n = 12),bla_VIM-3 (n = 1), bla_IMP-6 (n = 2) and bla_IMP-26 (n = 1) genes. The MBL genes were located on the chromosome in all isolates except one. Furthermore, all the MBL genes were located in a class 1 integron. All the MPPA isolates from Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Korea were identified as sequence type (ST) 235 by MLST. Three VIM-2-producing isolates from India were identified as ST773, and one isolate harbouring VIM-3 from Taiwan was identified as ST298.

Conclusions: P. aeruginosa ST235 might play a role in dissemination of MBL genes in Asian countries.