Molecular epidemiology of aminoglycoside resistance in clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae collected from Qazvin and Tehran provinces, Iran

Production of aminoglycoside modifying enzymes (AMEs) and 16S rRNA methylases are two main resistance mechanisms against these antibiotics. This study determined the frequency of AMEs and 16 s rRNA methylase genes among aminoglycoside non-susceptible K. pneumoniae isolates and evaluated their clonal relationship by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR. A total of 177 K. pneumoniae isolates were collected from hospitals of Qazvin and Tehran, Iran. The identification of isolates was done by standard laboratory methods and API 20E strips. Aminoglycosides susceptibility was determined by Kirby-Bauer method and AMEs and 16S rRNA methylase encoding genes were studied by PCR and sequencing methods. Clonal relatedness of isolates was assessed by ERIC-PCR method. In total, 74% of isolates were non-susceptible to the aminoglycosides used in the study among those kanamycin 110 (62.1%), tobramycin 91 (51.4%), and gentamycin 87 (49.2%) showed the highest rates of resistance whereas netilmicin and amikacin revealed high susceptibility rates of 67.8% and 61.0%, respectively. Of 130 aminoglycoside non-susceptible isolates, 91.5% were positive for the presence of aac(6')-Ib as the most dominant gene followed by aac(3)-II (78.5%), aph(3')-IIIa (14.6%), ant(4')-Ia (3.1%), and armA (7.7%) either alone or in combination. ERIC-PCR results showed 67.7% of non-susceptible isolates had different banding patterns followed by three distinct clones including A (16.2%), B (10.8%), and C (5.4%). Among those isolates carrying AMEs genes, 85 (68%) isolates belonged to independent groups and 21 (16.8%), 12 (9.6%), and 7 (5.6%) isolates belonged to groups A, B, and C, respectively, whereas 7 (70%) of 16S rRNA methylase-producing isolates belonged to independent groups. Our results revealed high prevalence of AMEs with the emergence of armA genes among the genetically unrelated resistant isolates of K. pneumonia in Iran, suggesting the need for more effective therapeutic strategies to reduce the selection pressure and better management of the patients infected with these resistant isolates.