Phenotypic and Genotypic Characterization of a Hypervirulent Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae ST17-KL38 Clinical Isolate Harboring the Carbapenemase IMP-4
Jintao He, Xiaoxing Du, Xi Zeng, Robert A. Moran, Willem van Schaik, Quanming Zou, Yunsong Yu, Jinyong Zhang, Xiaoting Hua
Abstract
The combination of drug resistance and hypervirulence significantly limits the available treatment options for life-threatening infections caused by multidrug-resistant hvKP, especially CR-hvKP. To date, research on IMP-producing CR-hvKP is extremely scarce, and the virulence mechanisms of CR-hvKP are far more complicated and diverse than has been described in the literature so far. In this study, we characterized the tigecycline-resistant and IMP-4 carbapenemase-producing ST17 K. pneumoniae isolate XH210 from a human blood sample. Importantly, XH210 exhibits hypervirulence but does not possess traits that are frequently associated with the phenotype, highlighting the urgent need to improve identification of potentially hypervirulent isolates and enhance active surveillance of CR-hvKP strains to prevent their dissemination.