First description of OXA-48-producing Escherichia coli and the pandemic clone ST131 from patients hospitalised at a military hospital in Algeria

• Published in: European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases 2014-09, Vol.33 (9), p.1641-1646
• Main Authors: Agabou, A., Pantel, A., Ouchenane, Z., Lezzar, N., Khemissi, S., Satta, D., Sotto, A., Lavigne, J.-P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Algeria; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Antimicrobial agents; beta-Lactamases - genetics; beta-Lactamases - secretion; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Child; Child, Preschool; Cloning; DNA Transposable Elements; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; E coli; Enzymes; Escherichia coli; Escherichia coli - classification; Escherichia coli - enzymology; Escherichia coli - genetics; Escherichia coli - isolation & purification; Escherichia coli Infections - microbiology; Female; Genes; Genotype; Hospitals, Military; Humans; Infant; Infections; Infectious diseases; Internal Medicine; Male; Medical Microbiology; Medical sciences; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Middle Aged; Molecular Typing; Pandemics; Patients; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Polymerase chain reaction; Serotyping; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0934-9723; 1435-4373
• DOI: 10.1007/s10096-014-2122-y

The aim of the study was to assess the frequency and diversity of carbapenemases and extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) produced by Escherichia coli isolates from patients hospitalised in the Regional Military Hospital of Constantine (Algeria). E. coli isolates were collected over a 2-year period from patients presenting E. coli infections. Strains with reduced susceptibility to ertapenem and/or positive for ESBL were characterised with regard to antibiotic resistance, bla genes, phylogenetic groups, O25 serotyping, quinolone resistance, repetitive sequence-based polymerase chain reaction (rep-PCR) profiles and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). Of the 448 isolated E. coli , 94 (20.9 %) were multidrug-resistant. One of them (1.1 %) produced a bla OXA-48 and was identified as a B1 ST5 strain. The transposon bearing this gene was Tn 1999.2. This strain was isolated from a patient coming from a border province with Tunisia, where this carbapenemase is endemic. In addition, 84 (18.8 %) isolates among them produced an ESBL with predominance (97.6 %) of bla CTX-M-15 , which was coupled with qnr genes in 10.9 %. ESBL-producing strains were mainly detected in phylogroups D and A. They displayed 20 rep-PCR profiles and all the clonally related isolates were of the same sequence type (ST). Ten strains (9.4 %) belonged to the pandemic clone ST131. This study describes for the first time the presence of OXA-48-producing E. coli and the emergence of the intercontinental ST131 bla CTX-15 -producing E. coli strains in Algeria.