Emergence of Klebsiella pneumoniae ST307 Co-Producing CTX-M with SHV and KPC from Paediatric Patients at Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, China

Aim: We investigated the clonal diversity of carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from the Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, China, and drew conclusions on the clinical and public health impact of these isolates as multidrug-resistant. Methods: From January 2014 to December 2018, a total number of 36 unique carbapenemase-producing clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae were collected out of 900 clinical isolates in paediatric patients from the Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, China. After carbapenemase production confirmation, antimicrobial susceptibility, resistance determinants and phylogenetic relationship were determined. Results: The isolates showed resistance to ceftazidime, ertapenem, ampicillin, cefazolin, ceftriaxone, cefotetan, ticarcillin, cefaclor, cefpodoxime, azlocillin, cefcapene, mezlocillin and ampicillin-sulbactam. Of the 36 Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase genes coding isolates, bla NDM was the mostly detected 50% (n=18) followed by bla KPC and bla IMP 19% (n=7), bla VIM 17% (n=6), bla OXA-48-like 8% (n=3) and bla SME 5% (n=2), whereas extended-spectrum β-lactamase ( bla SHV ) was predominantly detected 92% (n=33) followed by bla CTX-M 53% (n=19) and bla CMY 28% (n=10). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis typing showed eight different patterns, and twenty-five distinct sequences types were observed with ST307 being predominantly identified 11% (n=4), followed by ST2407 8% (n=3). Plasmid replicon typing results indicated that IncFIS, IncHI2, IncFIC and IncFIA plasmids carry bla CTX-M, bla SHV and bla NDM genes. Conclusion: This study reports on the occurrence and spread of carbapenemase and extended-spectrum β-lactamase encoding genes co-existence in sporadic Klebsiella pneumoniae ST307 in paediatric patients from the Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, China. Keywords: Klebsiella pneumoniae , carbapenemase, ESBLs, antimicrobial susceptibility, molecular characterization