Project description:The study aimed to characterize plasmids mediating carbepenem resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae in Pretoria, South Africa. We analysed 56 K. pneumoniae isolates collected from academic hospital around Pretoria. Based on phenotypic and molecular results of these isolates, 6 representative isolates were chosen for further analysis using long reads sequencing platform. We observed multidrug resistant phenotype in all these isolates, including resistance to aminoglycosides, tetracycline, phenicol, fosfomycin, floroquinolones, and beta-lactams antibiotics. The blaOXA-48/181 and blaNDM-1/7 were manily the plasmid-mediated carbapenemases responsible for carbapenem resistance in the K. pneumoniae isolates in these academic hospitals. These carbapenemase genes were mainly associated with plasmid replicon groups IncF, IncL/M, IncA/C, and IncX3. This study showed plasmid-mediated carbapenemase spread of blaOXA and blaNDM genes mediated by conjugative plasmids in Pretoria hospitals.
Project description:The emergence and spread of polymyxin resistance, especially among Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates threaten the effective management of infections. This study profiled for polymyxin resistance mechanisms and investigated the activity of polymyxins plus vancomycin against carbapenem- and polymyxin-resistant K. pneumoniae.
Project description:The increasing antibiotic resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae poses a serious threat to global public health. To investigate the antibiotic resistance mechanism of Klebsiella pneumonia, we performed gene expression profiling analysis using RNA-seq data for clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumonia, KPN16 and ATCC13883. Our results showed that mutant strain KPN16 is likely to act against the antibiotics through increased increased butanoate metabolism and lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis, and decreased transmembrane transport activity.
Project description:In this study, we introduce BacDrop, a bacterial droplet-based high throughput scRNA-seq technology that can be applied to large cell numbers. We applied BacDrop to study Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical isolates and elucidated their critical, genome-wide heterogeneity in the absence and presence of antibiotic perturbations.
Project description:The increasing resistence and/or bacterial tolerance to bactericides, such as chlorhexidine, causes worrisome public health problems. Using transcriptomical and microbiological studies, we analysed the molecular mechanisms associated with the adaptation to chlorhexidine in two carbapenemase-producing strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae belonging ST258-KPC3 and ST846-OXA48.
Project description:Klebsiella pneumoniae is an arising threat to human health. However, host immune responses in response to this bacterium remain to be elucidated. The goal of this study was to identify the dominant host immune responses associated with Klebsiella pneumoniae pulmonary infection. Pulmonary mRNA profiles of 6-8-weeks-old BALB/c mice infected with/without Klebsiella pneumoniae were generated by deep sequencing using Illumina Novaseq 6000. qRT–PCR validation was performed using SYBR Green assays. Using KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) analysis, we identified several immune associated pathways, including complement and coagulation cascades, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, Rap1 signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, phagosome and NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, were involved in Klebsiella pneumoniae pulmonary infection. Using ICEPOP (Immune CEll POPulation) analysis, we found that several cell types were involved in the host immune response to Klebsiella pneumoniae pulmonary infection, including dendritic cells, macrophages, monocytes, NK (natural killer) cells, stromal cells. Further, IL-17 chemokines were significantly increased during Klebsiella pneumoniae infection. This study provided evidence for further studying the pathogenic mechanism of Klebsiella pneumoniae pneumonia infection.
