Emergence of blaOXA-1- and mph(A)-Producing Vibrio furnissii Isolated from Hospital Sewage

Abstract

Cephalosporins and azithromycin are clinical antibiotics used to treat infections. Co-resistance to cephalosporins and azithromycin has been observed in some Enterobacterales , but it has only rarely been reported in Vibrio species. In this study, we isolated a cephalosporin- and azithromycin-resistant V. furnissii strain, VFN3, from hospital sewage. Whole-genome sequencing results showed that the strain VFN3 possesses an IncA/C2 plasmid, pVFN3-blaOXA-193K. This conjugative plasmid carries several clinically relevant drug resistance genes, including mph (A) and bla OXA-1 . We also found that in the strain VFN3, mph (A) and bla OXA-1 are surrounded by insertion sequences and class I integrons, respectively. These data suggest that mobile elements mediate the transfer of mph (A) and bla OXA-1 . This is the first reported Vibrio species that possesses an mph (A)- and bla OXA-1 -bearing conjugative plasmid. The emergence of this conjugative multi-drug-resistance plasmid is of great concern to public health.

Case Report: Vibrio Furnissii isolated from a case of acute gastroenteritis in China

“…Other reports revealed the same pattern of antibiotic resistance [3,18]. The mechanism of antimicrobial resistance of V. furnissii may due to posses-sing of drug resistance genes [19]. Treatment with oral levofloxacin coupled with berberine hydrochloride and paracetamol tablets was effective against the gastroenteritis caused by V. furnissii in oue case.…”

Virulence, antibiotic resistance phenotypes and molecular characterisation of Vibrio furnissii isolates from patients with diarrhoea

“…Several mobile genetic elements, such as insertion sequences, transposons and gene cassettes/integrons, can move within or between DNA molecules and transfer between bacterial cells [58]. GCA_021249365 was isolated from hospital sewage in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, China [19], and GCF_024220035 [40] was isolated from the stool sample of a 63-year-old man in Zhongshan, Guangdong province. These two strains were quite close on the phylogenetic tree, indicating that they might have originated from the same colony.…”

“…The strain VFBJ01 had the antibiotic resistance genes strA, strB, aph(3'')-Ib, aph(6)-Id and sul2. In all of the 31 V. furnissii sequences, antimicrobial resistance genes were mainly found in strains isolated after 2017, including VFBJ07, VFBJ05, VFBJ01, GCA_007050385 (isolated from river sediments, Bangladesh, 2017), GCA_022289035 (isolated from a water sample, Columbia, 2019), GCF_024220035 (strain 104,486,766 [40], isolated from a stool sample, China, 2022) and GCA_021249365 [19] (isolated from hospital sewage, China, 2021). Among these strains, GCA_021249365 (strain VFN3), submitted by Zhuhai People's Hospital, had the largest number of antimicrobial resistance genes.…”

“…2). Two of the 31 V. furnissii sequences, GCF_024220035 [40] and GCA_021249365 [19], contained the same plasmid NZ_CP089604.1 (pVFN3-blaOXA-193 K), an antimicrobial resistance gene-bearing conjugative plasmid [19]. However, whole-genome sequences revealed two plasmids present in VFBJ05 and VFBJ07.…”

“…V. fluvialis has the ability to cause epidemics, so the rapid increase in and spread of antibiotic resistance in this pathogen during the past 20 years has become a major cause of concern [18]. V. furnissii is phylogenetically close to V. fluvialis, and recently, a mph(A)-and bla OXA−1 -bearing conjugative plasmid, which mediates resistance to cephalosporins and azithromycin, was also discovered in a V. furnissii strain isolated from hospital sewage in Zhuhai, a coastal city in China [19].…”