Molecular analysis of metallo-β-lactamase genes in some gram-negative bacteria and examination of the phylogenetic relationships of isolates

Aim: This study aimed to determine the susceptibility of carbapenem-resistant Gr (-) bacilli isolated from various clinical infections to various antibiotics and identify genes causing carbapenem resistance and their clonal relationships to elucidate the distribution of resistance in community and/or hospital-acquired strains.
Material and methods: In this study, antibiotic susceptibilities of 450 carbapenem-resistant Gr (-) bacilli isolated from clinical specimens at Cukurova University, Faculty of Medicine, Balcali Hospital, were investigated using phenotypic methods. The presence of carbapenems and β-lactamase genes were searched using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequence analysis methods. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) method was used to evaluate the phylogenetic relationship of the isolates.
Results: Based on the results, it was determined that 99.23% of the strains had gained resistance to meropenem, whereas 5.38% had developed resistance to colistin. The most dominant carbapenems genes in all isolates were OXA-51, OXA-23-like and OXA-24-like.
Conclusion: It was observed that the only antibiotic that could be used safely in carbapenem-resistant Gr (-) bacilli infections was colistin. In addition, when the clonal relationship of the strains was examined, it was found that the clones considered to be closely related persisted, and these clones settled in different clinics of our hospital.