Resistance to cefotaxime and seven other beta-lactams in members of the family Enterobacteriaceae: a 3-year survey in France

During the second quarter each of 1988, 1989, and 1990, a French collaborative study group, including 12 university hospital laboratories, surveyed the resistance to beta-lactams of clinical isolates from hospitalized patients: consecutively, 10,641, 10,692, and 9,382 isolates were tested. The distribution of bacterial species over time was similar in each laboratory. The susceptibilities of microorganisms to amoxicillin, ticarcillin, cephalothin, cefoxitin, cefotaxime (CTX), ceftazidime (CAZ), aztreonam (ATM), and imipenem (IPM) were measured by the disk diffusion method in accordance with the recommendations of the Antibiogram Committee of the French Society for Microbiology. Five reference strains were included for quality control. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases were detected by the synergistic effect of the combination of clavulanic acid-amoxicillin with CTX, CAZ, and ATM in the double-diffusion test. A synergistic effect with CTX, CAZ, and ATM was detected for 1.5% of all strains, mainly those of Klebsiella pneumoniae (13.3%). For this species, the synergy test enabled the detection of roughly 50% of the resistant strains misclassified as susceptible on the basis of interpretative standards. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases disseminated in 1990 in most enterobacterial species but at a low frequency. Important variations in the percentages of resistant strains were observed in terms of bacterial species, hospitals, and wards. However, when the total number of strains was considered, the percentages of resistance to newer beta-lactams remained low.

Multiplicity of TEM-derived beta-lactamases from Klebsiella pneumoniae strains isolated at the same hospital and relationships between the responsible plasmids

Five plasmid-mediated beta-lactamases conferring high-level resistance to ceftazidime were isolated from Klebsiella pneumoniae strains in the same hospital. These enzymes had isoelectric points ranging from 5.3 to 6.5 (CAZ-1, 5.55; CAZ-2, 6.0; CAZ-3, 5.3; CAZ-6, 6.5; and CAZ-7, 6.3). All isolates and their Escherichia coli transconjugants were highly resistant to amoxicillin (MICs, greater than 4,096 micrograms/ml), piperacillin (64 to 256 micrograms/ml), cephalothin (32 to 256 micrograms/ml), and ceftazidime (32 to 512 micrograms/ml) but remained moderately susceptible to cefotaxime (0.5 to 8 micrograms/ml). Only CAZ-6- and CAZ-7-producing strains were highly resistant to aztreonam (64 to 128 micrograms/ml). All the isolates remained susceptible to moxalactam and imipenem. The reduced activity of piperacillin, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, or aztreonam was restored by 2 micrograms of clavulanate, sulbactam, tazobactam, or brobactam per ml for E. coli producing CAZ-2, CAZ-3, and CAZ-7. Sulbactam had a lower protective effect than other inhibitors for E. coli harboring CAZ-1 and especially CAZ-6. Except for CAZ-1, which was mediated by a 150-kilobase (kb) plasmid (pCFF14), the other ceftazidimases were mediated by plasmids of 85 kb with EcoRI digestion patterns similar to that of pCFF04 encoding CTX-1 beta-lactamase. A TEM probe hybridized with a 19-kb EcoRI fragment of all these closely related plasmids.

Comparative study of a novel plasmid-mediated beta-lactamase, CAZ-2, and the CTX-1 and CAZ-1 enzymes conferring resistance to broad-spectrum cephalosporins

Infections caused by strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae resistant to broad-spectrum cephalosporins have been observed recently in hospitals in Clermont-Ferrand, France. beta-Lactam resistance resulted primarily from the plasmid-mediated, expanded-spectrum CTX-1 beta-lactamase. Furthermore, since 1987 some K. pneumoniae isolates more resistant to ceftazidime than to other cephalosporins have been observed. This new resistance phenotype was the result of the production of ceftazidimase CAZ-1 and, more recently, CAZ-2. As in CTX-1-producing strains, resistance to beta-lactams resulting from CAZ-2 was associated with resistance to aminoglycosides except gentamicin, sulfonamide, and tetracycline and was transferable to Escherichia coli by conjugation. Agarose gel electrophoresis of plasmid DNA from wild-type strains and transconjugants indicated that CAZ-2 production was mediated by a plasmid of 85 kilobases highly related to plasmid pCFF04 coding for CTX-1 beta-lactamase. The isoelectric point, close to 6.0, of this novel enzyme differed from those of CTX-1 and CAZ-1. Like CAZ-1, the CAZ-2 enzyme efficiently hydrolyzed ceftazidime and aztreonam, but as with CTX-1, cefotaxime gave the maximal reaction rate. For each expanded-spectrum beta-lactamase, the activity of broad-spectrum cephalosporins was restored by clavulanic acid or sulbactam.

Novel plasmid-mediated beta-lactamase in clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae more resistant to ceftazidime than to other broad-spectrum cephalosporins

Multiresistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strains isolated from three patients in the same intensive care unit were more resistant to ceftazidime than to cefotaxime and aztreonam but remained susceptible to moxalactam and imipenem. Resistance to beta-lactams, kanamycin, streptomycin, sulfonamides, and tetracyclines was transferable to Escherichia coli by conjugation and was lost en bloc after treatment with ethidium bromide. Agarose gel electrophoresis of wild types and transconjugants indicated that these resistances were mediated by a 150-kilobase plasmid, pCFF14. The strains constitutively produced a beta-lactamase with isoelectric point close to 5.6 and which had a higher Vmax for ceftazidime and cephalothin than for cefotaxime. The substrate profile and isoelectric point of this enzyme thus differ from those of other known plasmid-mediated beta-lactamases, including the broad-spectrum enzyme CTX-1. Hybridization studies support the derivation of the novel enzyme from a TEM-type beta-lactamase.