Aspectos fisiológicos e moleculares da resistência aos carbapenêmicos em klebsiella pneumoniae e Enterobacter aerogenes, com implicação na virulência bacteriana

Abstract

The antimicrobial resistance is a growing problem, restricting treatment options and resulting in more frequent clinical failures. Carbapenemases are enzymes produced by Gram-negative bacteria which confer resistance to β-lactams. Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter aerogenes stand out by opportunism and production capacity of these enzymes and their involvement in nosocomial infections. Our study aimed to evaluate the virulence and related carbapenem resistance in K. pneumoniae and E. aerogenes physiological and molecular aspects, isolated from the Clinical Laboratory, in a tertiary hospital in the city of Juiz de Fora - Minas Gerais, during 2012. During the study period, 3437 clinical specimens were processed for microbial isolation. Identified samples were evaluated for antimicrobial susceptibility and 42 resistant Enterobacteriaceae to carbapenems were considered. Underwent tests for evaluation of carbapenemase production, hemolytic activity, biofilm formation, oxidative stress and biocides tolerance. The results showed that K. pneumoniae and E. aerogenes were recovered in urine, catheter, blood and respiratory tract. Among the patients, 61.9% were ICU. The isolates showed high levels of sensitivity to amikacin and tigecycline (>90%). Considering the frequency of genetic markers, KPC was the most common (97.6%), followed by TEM (95.2%), SHV (69.0%) and CTX-M (38.1%). In all isolates, 2.4% had one genetic marker associated with resistance to carbapenems, 23.8% had two markers, 45.2% had three and 28.6% had four. Carbapenemase producers showed particular characteristics regarding the assessed physiological characteristics, suggesting that these bacteria may exhibit different behaviors of microorganisms of the same species susceptible to carbapenem with implications not only for antibiotic therapy, but also for their virulence and persistence in the nosocomial environment. These results confirm the difficulty of therapeutic management of patients with infections associated with multi- resistant and opportunistic microorganisms with direct impacts on mortality and epidemiological control of these microorganisms in health centers.