First report of bla _GES-1 in Proteus mirabilis clinical isolates

Abstract

Proteus mirabilis is one of the main pathogens causing urinary tract infections and sepsis. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a P. mirabilis hosting bla _GES. The presence of these genes was determined using PCR and sequencing. We identified the presence of bla _GES-1 in all three isolates. In addition, we identified the bla _KPC-2 and bla _NDM-1 genes in the two strains. These data emphasize the importance of monitoring and surveillance of all enterobacteria. The circulation of P. mirabilis strains carrying bla _GES-1 constitutes a new scenario of resistance in this species and should be an epidemiological alert for global health.

Keywords:
Proteus mirabilis; bla _GES ; bla _NDM

INTRODUCTION

Proteus spp. are gram-negative bacilli belonging to the order Enterobacterales. The genus contains six species: Proteus vulgaris, Proteus mirabilis, Proteus myxofaciens, Proteus cibarius, Proteus penneri, and Proteus hauseri. P. mirabilis, P. vulgaris, and P. penneri are commonly described as opportunistic pathogens¹.

Proteus strains with moderate resistance to imipenem are frequent, with evidence that this resistance is due to changes in the penicillin-binding protein (PBP2). In addition, Proteus can acquire resistance to several antimicrobial groups because of the presence of resistance genes such as bla _OXA-58, bla _OXA-48, bla _OXA-23, bla _NDM-1, bla _VIM-1, bla _IMP, bla _KPC-2, bla _ACC-1, bla _FOX, bla _CMY-2, bla _DHA-1, bla _VEB-6, bla _PER-2, bla _CTX-M, and bla _TEM¹.

Proteus mirabilis is a bacterium frequently associated with urinary tract infections (UTI), especially in patients who have been using a urinary catheter for a long time. In addition, it has intrinsic resistance to polymyxins, nitrofurantoin, and tigecycline, which makes it difficult to treat infections caused by this bacterium². In this context, infections by P. mirabilis presenting acquired resistance to beta-lactams are considered challenging issues for antimicrobial therapy.

Class A extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL) are determinants of acquired resistance that have a high clinical impact³. The emergence of ESBLs, such as GES, has become an emerging public health problem, along with the NDM and KPC carbapenemases. GES confers resistance to all extended-spectrum cephalosporins and adversely impacts the efficiency of ceftazidime, and KPC and NDM to all beta-lactams.

The current literature describes the presence of bla _GES in several bacterial species and in several countries distributed across all continents. However, the presence of this gene in Proteus has not been extensively investigated. We searched worldwide databases (Pubmed/NCBI, scielo, Google scholar, and nucleotide sequences deposited on the Nucleotide/NCBI platform) for manuscripts that reported the presence of Proteus isolates carrying bla _GES (keywords for the searches: “Proteus” and “bla _GES,” “Proteus” and “GES,” “Proteus mirabilis” and “bla _GES”). Unexpectedly, none of the manuscripts reported the presence of bla _GES in P. mirabilis or any species belonging to the genus Proteus. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of an isolate of P. mirabilis carrying bla _GES.

CASE REPORT

Three bacterial strains isolated from three patients from a public hospital in Recife-PE, Brazil, were analyzed. The first isolate (P5-A2) was obtained from a female patient with urinary infection and was admitted to the surgical clinic. The second isolate (P15-A2) was obtained from a female patient with urinary tract infection and was admitted to the cardiology department. The third isolate (P44-A2) was obtained from a female patient with a sample collected from the catheter tip, who was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).

Biochemical identification and susceptibility to different classes of antimicrobials were performed using the automated system Bactec 9120/Phoenix-BD. Susceptibility interpretation was performed according to the BrCast⁴. The presence of bla _GES, bla _NDM, and bla _KPC was determined by PCR using specific primers⁵. The PCR products were sequenced using Sanger sequencing. The nucleotide sequences were analyzed using BLAST (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/), Clustal W of the European Bioinformatics Institute (http://www.cbi.ac.uk/), and Bioedit v7. The nucleotide sequences were deposited in GenBank under the accession numbers MW527065 and MW554921.

The three isolates showed multidrug resistance and phenotypic indication for the production of ESBL and/or carbapenemases, presenting resistance to several antimicrobials (Table 1). Only the isolate P44-A2 showed resistance to carbapenems, imipenem, and meropenem (Table 1). Sequencing analysis revealed the presence of bla _GES-1 variants in the three isolates (P5-A2, P15-A2, and P44-A2). In addition to the presence of bla _GES-1, we also identified the presence of bla _KPC-2 and bla _NDM-1 genes in isolates P15-A2 and P44-A2, respectively.

TABLE 1:
Profile of Proteus mirabilis isolates analyzed in the study.

Id.	Harvest date (ddmmyyyy)	Sector	Clinical samle	Resistance rofile
P5-A2	24082017	Surgical clinic	Urine	Amoxicillin-clavulanate (MIC>168)
				Amicillin (MIC>16)
				Aztreonam
				Cehalothin (MIC>16)
				Cefeime (MIC>16)
				Ceftazidime
				Ceftriaxone (MIC>32)
				Cefuroxime (MIC>16)
				Cirofloxacin (MIC>2)
				Gentamicin (MIC>8)
				Levofloxacin (MIC>4)
				Trimethorim-sulfamethoxazole (MIC>476)
P15-A2	05012017	Cardiology	Urine	Amikacin (MIC>32)
				Amoxicillin-clavulanate (MIC>168)
				Amicillin (MIC>16)
				Aztreonam
				Cehalothin (MIC>16)
				Cefeime (MIC>16)
				Ceftazidime
				Ceftriaxone (MIC1=6)
				Cefuroxime (MIC>16)
				Cirofloxacin (MIC>2)
				Levofloxacin (MIC>4)
				Nitrofurantoin (MIC>64)
				Pieracillin-tazobactam (MIC>644
				Trimethorim-sulfamethoxazole (MIC>476)
P44-A2	03052018	ICU	Catheter ti	Amikacin (MIC=32)
				Amoxicillin-clavulanate (MIC>168)
				Amicillin (MIC>16)
				Aztreonam
				Cefeime (MIC>16)
				Cefoxitin (MIC>16)
				Ceftazidime (MIC>16)
				Ceftriaxone (MIC>32)
				Cefuroxime (MIC>16)
				Cirofloxacin (MIC>2)
				Gentamicin (MIC>8)
				Imienem (MIC>8)
				Levofloxacin (MIC>4)
				Meroenem (MIC=8)
				Nitrofurantoin (MIC>64)
				Pieracillin-tazobactam (MIC>644)
				Trimethorim-sulfamethoxazole (MIC>476)

• ICU: intensive care unit; MIC: minimum inhibitory concentration; Id: identification.

DISCUSSION

The presence of important resistance genes occurs less frequently in Proteus⁶, since there are few reports of β-lactamases in this species when compared to other species of the Enterobacterales order. However, the presence of ESBL in Proteus was more frequent⁷.

GES enzymes were initially described in Klebsiella pneumoniae in France using a rectal swab from a one-month-old girl who was hospitalized in French Guiana⁷. Since then, bla _GES has been reported in several species and in several countries, including Brazil, most frequently in non-fermenting bacilli such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, and enterobacteria such as K. pneumoniae^8-10. GES is part of a group of ESBL and carbapenemases, comprising 43 variants (http://bldb.eu/BLDB.php?prot=A#GES) that have been found in several species of gram-negative bacteria³. In the three isolates investigated, a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value greater than 16 for ceftazidime was observed. GES-1 can hydrolyze aztreonam, amoxicillin, and mainly ceftazidime with a very high MIC value (MIC = 4 to MIC = 128)⁷.

The genes investigated in the present study were obtained from the bacterial genome and may contain plasmids that have not yet been identified. bla _GES is constantly found in plasmids, but it can be present in the chromosome and in conjugative or non-conjugative plasmids, such as IncP, ColE1, IncQ, and IncF, as well as in non-typable plasmids^11-12.

The presence of P. mirabilis carrying bla _GES-1 is worrying because this gene encodes the ESBL enzyme and shows resistance to a wide range of β-lactams, such as resistance to 3rd generation (ceftazidime, cefotaxime, cefoxitin) and 4th generation cephalosporins (cefepime) and monobactams (Aztreonam)¹³. In addition, within the Proteus genus, there are no reports of this pathogen carrying bla _GES. These data emphasize the importance of monitoring and surveillance of all enterobacteria. The circulation of P. mirabilis strains carrying bla _GES-1 constitutes a new scenario of resistance in this species and should be an epidemiological alert for global health.

Ethical Approval: The study was approved by the ethics committee for research involving human beings (CEP/Plataforma Brasil) and registered under CAAE number 99147818.6.0000.5208.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to the Central Laboratory of the CCB/UFPE- LABCEN, Brazil, for the sequencing, especially Prof. Dr. Marcos Antonio de Morais and Dr. Heidi Lacerda. We also thank Josineide Ferreira de Barros, biomedical head of the Hospital Microbiology sector in Recife-PE, Brazil.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  22 Mar 2021
• Date of issue
  2021

History

• Received
  17 Dec 2020
• Accepted
  05 Feb 2021