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Abstract Background In recent years, under the selective challenge of antibiotics, the variety and number of drugresistant pathogenic microorganisms have increased significantly, which brings great challenges to clinical diagnosis and treatment, especially the infection caused by carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). Carbapenemases production is the main mechanism of drug resistance of Enterobacteriaceae to carbapenems. Drug resistance of Carbapenems can be caused by three mechanisms, resulting in the production of five major Carbapenemases. These are Klebsiella pneumoniae enzyme (KPC), New Delhi metal β-lactamase (NDM), carbapenem hydrolyzed oxalase (OXA-48 like), integrin-encoded metal β- lactamase (VIM) and IMP (Imipenemase). The real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR) method based on molecular beacons was combined with the melting curve analysis to identify five drug resistance genes simultaneously by a single PCR reaction, with rapid detection, high sensitivity and strong specificity. Based on this principle, we developed the novel fluorogenic assay for rapid detection of Carbapenemases in multidrug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (Dynamiker Biotechnology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd.). Methods We evaluated the performance of the novel fluorogenic assay for rapid detection of Carbapenemases in multidrug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, including the limit of detection (LoD) and cross-reactivity, and compared it with the lateral flow immunochromatography assay (LFA). Results The LoD ranged from 75-450 CFU/mL for the five carbapenemase genes. The analytical specificity for target genes was 100%, as assessed with a panel of 15 pathogens, which indicated no cross-reactions. Comparison of qPCR and LFA results from twenty-three CRE clinical isolates with characterized carbapenemase content demonstrated a complete agreement (Table 1). Conclusions The novel fluorogenic assay for rapid detection of Carbapenemases in multidrug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae is an accurate and rapid method to identify KPC, NDM, VIM, IMP and OXA-48-like carbapenemases in the clinical microbiology laboratory, which can guide infection control programs to limit the spread of these organisms.
Zhou et al. (Tue,) studied this question.