Inverse Association between the Existence of CRISPR/Cas Systems with Antibiotic Resistance, Extended Spectrum β-Lactamase and Carbapenemase Production in Multidrug, Extensive Drug and Pandrug-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae

• Published in: Antibiotics (Basel) 2023-05, Vol.12 (6), p.980
• Main Authors: Jwair, Noor A, Al-Ouqaili, Mushtak T S, Al-Marzooq, Farah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Antimicrobial agents; Antimicrobial resistance; Bacteria; Carbapenemase; carbapenemases; CRISPR; CRISPR/Cas; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Drug resistance; Enzymes; extended-spectrum β-lactamases; Genomes; Genotype & phenotype; Infections; K. pneumoniae; Klebsiella; Klebsiella pneumoniae; Multidrug resistance; Opportunist infection; Plasmids; Viruses; β Lactamase
• ISSN: 2079-6382; 2079-6382
• DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics12060980

Antimicrobial resistance, with the production of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) and carbapenemases, is common in the opportunistic pathogen, . This organism has a genome that can contain clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs), which operate as a defense mechanism against external invaders such as plasmids and viruses. This study aims to determine the association of the CRISPR/Cas systems with antibiotic resistance in isolates from Iraqi patients. A total of 100 isolates were collected and characterized according to their susceptibility to different antimicrobial agents. The CRISPR/Cas systems were detected via PCR. The phenotypic detection of ESBLs and carbapenemases was performed. The production of ESBL was detected in 71% of the isolates. Carbapenem-resistance was detected in 15% of the isolates, while only 14% were susceptible to all antimicrobial agents. Furthermore, the bacteria were classified into multidrug (77%), extensively drug-resistant (11.0%) and pandrug-resistant (4.0%). There was an inverse association between the presence of the CRISPR/Cas systems and antibiotic resistance, as resistance was higher in the absence of the CRISPR/Cas system. Multidrug resistance in ESBL-producing and carbapenem-resistant occurred more frequently in strains negative for the CRISPR/Cas system. Thus, we conclude that genes for exogenous antibiotic resistance can be acquired in the absence of the CRISPR/Cas modules that can protect the bacteria against acquiring foreign DNA.