Prevalence of VIM- and GIM-producing Acinetobacter baumannii from patients with severe urinary tract infection

Carbapenems are administered as the final drug of choice for treating complicated nosocomial infections caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii strains. It is currently a worldwide issue that metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) as carbapenem-hydrolyzing enzymes are one of the major drug resistance mechanisms. This investigation is thus aimed to assess the prevalence and characterize the MBL-producing strains of A. baumannii both by phenotypic assays and by genotypic characterization. A total of 73 isolates of A. baumannii were phenotypically and genotypically characterized from patients ( N = 1,000) with severe urinary tract infection. Tested strains were subjected to double disc synergy testing (DDST) by Kirby–Bauer disc diffusion method with imipenem (IMP) and IMP/EDTA combination discs. Plasmid DNA was molecularly screened for MBL-encoding bla IMP , bla VIM , bla GIM , and bla NDM genes by PCR for the genetic relatedness of the MBL genes with carbapenem resistance. Carbapenem resistance profile showed 100%, 45%, and 49% non-susceptibility against imipenem, doripenem, and meropenem, respectively. Altogether 42.46% ( n = 31) of the isolates showed MBL production upon double disc phenotypic test with IMP and IMP/EDTA discs. The bla VIM and bla GIM were detected in 34.24% ( n = 25) and 16.43% ( n = 12) of the isolates, respectively, while the co-occurrence of bla VIM and bla GIM was 2.73% among the isolates. DDST-positive isolates showed 21.19% and 9.58% strains positive for bla VIM and bla GIM , respectively, whereas 1.36% of the strains for both genes. None of the strains yielded bla IMP and bla NDM genes. The findings of this study showed prevalence of carbapenem resistance among A. baumannii from urine samples and the frequency of bla VIM and bla GIM.