Characterization of an inhibitor-resistant TEM (IRT) beta-lactamase in a novel strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Morand.
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P. penneri produces an inducible cephalosporinase, as many Enterobacteriaceae. Nevertheless this betalactamase is susceptible to clavulanic acid which is an exception also encountered for P. vulgaris. The authors studied the enzyme produced by P. penneri 14HBC resistant to cefotaxime (MIC 16 mg/l) isolated in Spain in 1992. This betalactamase of isoelectric point 6.65 hydrolyzes first generation cephalosporins, amoxycillin and poorly ticarcillin as it occurs for all cephalosporinases. However, this enzyme hydrolyzes strongly oxyimino-cephalosporins: cefuroxime, cefotaxime, cefepime, cefpirome as it occurs with extended-spectrum betalactamases. Cephamycins and imipenem are not substrates. Clavulanic acid has a very good affinity for this betalactamase which is inactivated progressively. These properties are similar to those of the enzyme of P. vulgaris Ro104 of isoelectric point 8.3 which, contrarily to other cephalosporinases, belongs to the structural Ambler's class A.
The interactions of cefdinir, a new orally-active third-generation cephalosporin, with cell-free beta-lactamase preparations were studied in comparison with some other beta-lactams. Cefdinir was very resistant to narrow-spectrum Ambler's class A beta-lactamases, as it was for other oximino beta-lactams: cefotaxime, ceftazidime, cefixime and cefuroxime. Cefaclor showed a low but significant hydrolysis by these beta-lactamases. These class-A enzymes include the widespread plasmid mediated TEM-1, TEM-2, SHV-1 and also the enzymes of Gram-positive penicillinases, such as that produced by S. aureus. The hydrolysis of cefdinir was hardly detectable by the Ambler's class C beta-lactamases (cephalosporinases) produced by E. coli, E. cloacae and M. morganii. A similar conclusion is shown for cefotaxime, ceftazidime, cefixime and cefuroxime: for these beta-lactamases, the hydrolysis of cefaclor was high. The P. vulgaris cephalosporinase differs from the previous cephalosporinases in that it hydrolyses cefotaxime, cefuroxime and cefaclor efficiently. However, the hydrolysis of cefdinir remains too low to be detected. Cefdinir, as other third-generation cephalosporins, showed some hydrolysis by the novel extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL): SHV-2, TEM-3, TEM-5, MEN-1 and other ESBL.
The authors analysed the antibacterial activity of ceftibuten, cefotaxime, ceftazidime and aztreonam against Klebsiella pneumoniae strains, including those which produced novel extended-spectrum beta-lactamases. These molecules were also tested for their susceptibility to cell-free extracts of the corresponding beta-lactamases. Both approaches showed that ceftibuten was not hydrolysed by the CTX-1/TEM-3, SHV-2 and SHV-3 beta-lactamases, while cefotaxime, ceftazidime and aztreonam were hydrolysed. Nevertheless all compounds were substrates for the SHV-4 and SHV-5 beta-lactamases, and the organisms which produced these beta-lactamases showed increased MICs.
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Resistance of bacteria to antibiotics often involves inactivating enzymes. One approach developed to overcome this mechanism of resistance consists of combining an efficient but possibly unstable antibiotic with a powerful inhibitor of the inactivating enzyme. Attempts have been made with different antibiotics but significant success has only been obtained with the beta-lactams, clavulanic acid and sulbactam being the only compounds currently being used clinically. Sulbactam, a time-dependent irreversible inhibitor of plasmid-mediated penicillinases and of chromosomally mediated penicillinases and cephalosporinases, potentiates the antibacterial activity of beta-lactams but only exhibits a moderate antibacterial activity, which is related to its affinity for the lethal targets of the beta-lactams--the penicillin-binding proteins. In bacterial strains that produce either low amounts of beta-lactamase, or none at all, a synergistic effect can be observed when sulbactam is associated with a beta-lactam antibiotic that has a complementary affinity for the target sites.
The interactions of a meropenem were studied with a set of beta-lactamases including the new TEM- and SHV-related plasmid-mediated enzymes that have extended-spectrum activity against third-generation cephalosporins ('cefotaximases' and 'ceftazidimases'). Meropenem and imipenem were highly resistant to the hydrolytic activity of all the TEM and SHV related beta-lactamases, and to the OXA enzymes, as were the cephamycins: cefoxitin and cefotetan. The two carbapenems were also highly stable to Class C beta-lactamases (chromosomal cephalosporinases) whereas third-generation cephalosporins and cephamycins were slowly hydrolyzed. Both carbapenems demonstrated quite similar affinities for all the enzymes studied. In some instances, and particularly with Class A (TEM- and SHV-derived) enzymes, meropenem inactivated the beta-lactamase activity. Imipenem appeared less reactive in this respect.
Five plasmid-mediated beta-lactamases conferring high-level resistance to ceftazidime were isolated from Klebsiella pneumoniae strains in the same hospital. These enzymes had isoelectric points ranging from 5.3 to 6.5 (CAZ-1, 5.55; CAZ-2, 6.0; CAZ-3, 5.3; CAZ-6, 6.5; and CAZ-7, 6.3). All isolates and their Escherichia coli transconjugants were highly resistant to amoxicillin (MICs, greater than 4,096 micrograms/ml), piperacillin (64 to 256 micrograms/ml), cephalothin (32 to 256 micrograms/ml), and ceftazidime (32 to 512 micrograms/ml) but remained moderately susceptible to cefotaxime (0.5 to 8 micrograms/ml). Only CAZ-6- and CAZ-7-producing strains were highly resistant to aztreonam (64 to 128 micrograms/ml). All the isolates remained susceptible to moxalactam and imipenem. The reduced activity of piperacillin, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, or aztreonam was restored by 2 micrograms of clavulanate, sulbactam, tazobactam, or brobactam per ml for E. coli producing CAZ-2, CAZ-3, and CAZ-7. Sulbactam had a lower protective effect than other inhibitors for E. coli harboring CAZ-1 and especially CAZ-6. Except for CAZ-1, which was mediated by a 150-kilobase (kb) plasmid (pCFF14), the other ceftazidimases were mediated by plasmids of 85 kb with EcoRI digestion patterns similar to that of pCFF04 encoding CTX-1 beta-lactamase. A TEM probe hybridized with a 19-kb EcoRI fragment of all these closely related plasmids.
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The kinetic constants for "CAZ-5", a novel plasmid-mediated beta-lactamase with noticeable activity against third-generation cephalosporins and particularly ceftazidime have been determined. Two closely-related plasmid-mediated beta-lactamases have also been studied: SHV-2 and PIT-2 (also known as SHV-1). These enzymes were synthesized constitutively; they were highly sensitive to the action of the inhibitors clavulanic acid and sulbactam and they lacked activity against the cephamycins and imipenem. PIT-2/SHV-1 had poor hydrolytic activity against the third-generation cephalosporins, SHV-2 was markedly active against cefotaxime and related compounds, whereas the new enzyme, which was also active against these cephalosporins, had a noticeably greater activity against ceftazidime. Aztreonam was slowly hydrolysed by CAZ-5 beta-lactamase, but demonstrated an unusually high affinity for this enzyme.
Following Ambler's observations, B-lactamases can be divided in four classes, probably derived from a very small number of ancestral genes. Class A includes the TEM-type beta-lactamases (TEM-1, TEM-2), PIT-2/SHV-1 and others which do not hydrolyse ceftazidime and other third-generation cephalosporins. The new plasmid-mediated beta-lactamases markedly active against third-generation cephalosporins also belong to class A and the primary structures of few of them are known. All the class A beta-lactamases are highly susceptible to the action of beta-lactamase inhibitors: clavulanic acid, sulbactam, YTR-830, and are devoid of any hydrolytic properties for cephamycins and imipenem. Third-generation cephalosporins are slowly hydrolyzed by the class C beta-lactamases: the inducible cephalosporinases. Thus only organisms which produce derepressed cephalosporinases are resistant to third-generation cephalosporins, but individual variations are known.
We determined the kinetic constants for two plasmid-mediated beta-lactamases with strong activity against third-generation cephalosporins: CTX-1 and SHV-2. The enzymes had many similar properties: their synthesis was constitutive and they were significantly active against penicillins as well as cephalosporins. The two enzymes thus differed considerably from the chromosomal cephalosporinases, but bore some resemblance to the commonly-encountered plasmid-coded penicillinases, such as TEM beta-lactamases. Moreover, like the TEM enzymes, the plasmid-mediated CTX-1 and SHV-2 enzymes were highly sensitive to the action of the inhibitors clavulanic acid and sulbactam. These inhibitors protected cefotaxime from hydrolysis by these enzymes. Both CTX-1 and SHV-2 lacked activity against the cephamycins, cefoxitin, latamoxef (moxalactam) and cefotetan. The CTX-1 and SHV-2 enzymes had a low activity against oxacillin and were not sensitive to chloride ions. Thus, they were not related to the OXA type beta-lactamases. For the third-generation cephalosporins the rates of hydrolysis were high and thus bore no relation with those observed for the other presently-known beta-lactamases, with perhaps the exceptions of those produced by K. oxytoca. Imipenem was very resistant to the action of these CTX-1 and SHV-2 beta-lactamases.
Infections caused by strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae resistant to broad-spectrum cephalosporins have been observed recently in hospitals in Clermont-Ferrand, France. beta-Lactam resistance resulted primarily from the plasmid-mediated, expanded-spectrum CTX-1 beta-lactamase. Furthermore, since 1987 some K. pneumoniae isolates more resistant to ceftazidime than to other cephalosporins have been observed. This new resistance phenotype was the result of the production of ceftazidimase CAZ-1 and, more recently, CAZ-2. As in CTX-1-producing strains, resistance to beta-lactams resulting from CAZ-2 was associated with resistance to aminoglycosides except gentamicin, sulfonamide, and tetracycline and was transferable to Escherichia coli by conjugation. Agarose gel electrophoresis of plasmid DNA from wild-type strains and transconjugants indicated that CAZ-2 production was mediated by a plasmid of 85 kilobases highly related to plasmid pCFF04 coding for CTX-1 beta-lactamase. The isoelectric point, close to 6.0, of this novel enzyme differed from those of CTX-1 and CAZ-1. Like CAZ-1, the CAZ-2 enzyme efficiently hydrolyzed ceftazidime and aztreonam, but as with CTX-1, cefotaxime gave the maximal reaction rate. For each expanded-spectrum beta-lactamase, the activity of broad-spectrum cephalosporins was restored by clavulanic acid or sulbactam.
Kinetic constants were determined for two closely related plasmid-mediated beta-lactamases: SHV-2 and PIT-2 (also known as SHV-1). These enzymes were synthesized constitutively. They were highly sensitive to the action of the inhibitors clavulanic acid and sulbactam, and they lacked activity against cephamycins and also imipenem. Both enzymes were significantly active against penicillins and first-generation cephalosporins, and the main difference concerned the third-generation cephalosporins: SHV-2 was highly active against these compounds whereas PIT-2 was not.
Approximately 10% (89 isolates) of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated in 1985 from patients in intensive care units in Clermont-Ferrand exhibited a complex resistance phenotype towards antibiotics. They were resistant to amino-, carboxy- and ureidopenicillins, aminoglycosides (except gentamicin), chloramphenicol, sulphonamides, tetracyclines and, most importantly, to cephalosporins (except cefoxitin and latamoxef) and to aztreonam. The metabolic profile of fifty isolates was identical and seven were selected for further study. All the resistance characters in these isolates were transferable to Escherichia coli by conjugation and were lost en bloc after treatment with ethidium bromide. Agarose gel electrophoresis of crude lysates of the wild types and their transconjugants indicated that the multiple resistances were mediated by a 95kb plasmid, pCF04. The seven isolates selected for study and their corresponding transconjugants, constitutively produced a plasmid-mediated beta-lactamase with a pI of 6.3 that was much more active against third-generation cephalosporins than against cephalothin. The substrate profile and the isoelectric-focusing behaviour of this enzyme differed from those of other known plasmid-mediated beta-lactamases, and the enzyme was designated CTX-1. A chromosomally-encoded SHV-1 (PIT-2) penicillinase (pI 7.7) was also present in the seven K. pneumoniae isolates but did not transfer. Resistance to aminoglycosides in the K. pneumoniae isolates was due to synthesis of a 6'-aminoglycoside acetyltransferase type IV. Our data indicate an epidemic of antibiotic multiply-resistant strains of K. pneumoniae producing a new beta-lactamase.
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