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Recent reports have revealed the existence of widespread extensively drug-resistant (XDR) P. aeruginosa high-risk clones in health care settings, but there is still scarce information on their specific chromosomal (mutational) and acquired resistance mechanisms. Up to 20 (10.5%) of 190 bloodstream isolates collected from 10 Spanish hospitals met the XDR criteria. A representative number (15 per group) of isolates classified as multidrug-resistant (MDR) (22.6%), resistant to 1 to 2 classes (moderately resistant [modR]) (23.7%), or susceptible to all antibiotics (multiS) (43.2%) were investigated in parallel. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis revealed that all XDR isolates belonged to sequence type 175 (ST175) (n = 19) or ST111 (n = 1), both recognized as international high-risk clones. Clonal diversity was higher among the 15 MDR isolates (4 ST175, 2 ST111, and 8 additional STs) and especially high among the 15 modR (13 different STs) and multiS (14 STs) isolates. The XDR/MDR pattern in ST111 isolates correlated with the production of VIM-2, but none of the ST175 isolates produced acquired β-lactamases. In contrast, the analysis of resistance markers in 12 representative isolates (from 7 hospitals) of ST175 revealed that the XDR pattern was driven by the combination of AmpC hyperproduction, OprD inactivation (Q142X), 3 mutations conferring high-level fluoroquinolone resistance (GyrA T83I and D87N and ParC S87W), a G195E mutation in MexZ (involved in MexXY-OprM overexpression), and the production of a class 1 integron harboring the aadB gene (gentamicin and tobramycin resistance). Of particular interest, in nearly all the ST175 isolates, AmpC hyperproduction was driven by a novel AmpR-activating mutation (G154R), as demonstrated by complementation studies using an ampR mutant of PAO1. This work is the first to describe the specific resistance markers of widespread P. aeruginosa XDR high-risk clones producing invasive infections.

We investigated the presence of OprD mutations in 60 strains of metallo-ß-lactamase-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa intermediately susceptible (IS [n = 12]; MIC = 8 μg/ml) or susceptible (S [n = 48]; MICs ≤ 1 to 4 μg/ml) to imipenem and/or meropenem that were isolated from patients with bacteremia in order to evaluate their impact on carbapenem susceptibility profiles. The presence of mutations in oprD was detected by sequencing analysis. OprD expression was assessed by both outer membrane protein (OMP) analysis and real-time PCR (RT-PCR). Fourteen (23%) isolates had an OprD identical to that of PAO1, and OprD modifications were detected in 46 isolates (77%). Isolates were classified as OprD "full-length types" (T1 [n = 40, including both wild-type OprD and variants showing several polymorphisms]) and OprD "deficient types" (T2 [n = 3 for OprD frameshift mutations] and T3 [n = 17 for premature stop codons in oprD]). RT-PCR showed that 5 OprD type T1 isolates presented reduced transcription of oprD (0.1- to 0.4-fold compared to PAO1), while oprD levels increased more than 2-fold over that seen with PAO1 in 4 OprD type T1 isolates. A total of 50% of the isolates belonging to OprD "deficient types" were susceptible to both carbapenems, and 40% were susceptible to meropenem and intermediately susceptible to imipenem. Only one isolate (5%) within this group was intermediately susceptible to both carbapenems, and one (5%) was susceptible to imipenem and intermediately susceptible to meropenem. We concluded that OprD inactivating mutations in clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa are not restricted only to carbapenem-resistant isolates but are also found in isolates with imipenem or meropenem MICs of only 0.06 to 4 μg/ml.

Two closely related Enterobacter aerogenes isolates presented a new identical aac(6')-Ib-cr genetic environment, including IS26. One isolate showed lower MICs of ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, tobramycin, and amikacin and decreased expression of aac(6')-Ib-cr, which might be related to a 12-bp deletion causing a displacement of the -10 box upstream of the aac(6')-Ib-cr gene.