Antimicrobial Resistance

Abstract

Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) pose an emerging threat to public health sector worldwide. They are one of the potent nosocomial pathogens and cause variety of infections including pneumonia, septicaemia, wound infections, urinary tract infections and catheter-associated infections. From the last two decades, these pathogens are becoming more powerful due to the acquisition of resistomes on different types of plasmids and transposons. There are four main mechanisms of antibacterial resistance such as efflux pump, target alteration, membrane permeability and notably enzymes hydrolysis. K. pneumoniae produce different types of enzymes but most importantly extended spectrum-β-lactamase (ESBL), carbapenemase and metallo-β-lactamase (MBL). K. pneumoniae carbapenemases (KPCs) and New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM) producing isolates displayed resistance not only against the β-lactam drugs (penicillins, cephalosporins and carbapenems) but also to other classes of antibiotics (aminoglycosides and quinolones). Therapeutic options available to treat serious infections caused by these extensively drug-resistant pathogens are limited to colistin, tigecycline and fosfomycin. Hence, combination therapy has also been recommended to treat such bacteria with clinical side effects, therefore, new treatment regime must be required. Moreover, we are relying on conventional diagnostic tools, however, novel techniques must be required for robust identification of multi-drug-resistant bacteria.

Antibiotic Sensitivity Profile of Mastitis Pathogens from Dairy Cows in a Selected Farm in Laguna, Philippines [RESEARCH NOTE]

“…On the other hand, two K. pneumoniae isolates were intermediately sensitive (18.2%) to cefoperazone, a third generation broad spectrum cephalosporin. Possible reason behind this resistance from recently developed antibiotics was explained by Qamar et al (2019). According to them, when Enterobacteriaceae microorganisms such as K. pneumoniae and E. coli acquire a new beta lactamase gene, like SHV-1, which mediated resistance to older cephalosporin drugs, further mutations happen, thus increasing the resistance to recently developed cephalosporin-derived antimicrobials.…”