Antibiotic resistances in Enterobacteria

At a glance

Project leader : Fabio Rezzonico
Deputy of project leader : Theo Smits
Project status : completed
Funding partner : EU and other international programmes (Leading House Lateinamerika)
Project partner : Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Central Public Health Laboratory
Contact person : Fabio Rezzonico

Description

Atypical Enterobacteria are frequently misidentified in clinical diagnostics due to unsettled taxonomy and noisy reference databases. Despite of their environmental origin, they regularly appear in clinical samples and increasingly display multi-drug resistances (MDRs) that are acquired during adaptation to the nosocomial environment. Failure to provide a consistent identification inevitably results in the impossibility to recognize connections between seemingly independent clinical episodes and to implement proper surveillance and sanitary countermeasures. In this project, we aim (1) to accurately identify isolates collected during routine hospital environmental surveillance using mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), Multi-Locus Sequence Analysis (MLSA) and whole-genome sequencing (WGS); (2) to investigate the mechanisms by which these bacteria acquire antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs); and (3) to identify genomic regions that can be used as targets to design efficient molecular tests for the detection of recurring species in clinical samples, to improve quality and speed of diagnosis.

Publications

Hon, Peiyun; Ko, Karrie K. K.; Chia, Jonathan W. Z.; De, Partha P.; Smits, Theo H. M.; Low, Jiaming; Vasoo, Shawn; Tsui, Clement K. M.,

2023.

Correction for Hon et al., “Genomic Identification of Two Phytobacter diazotrophicus Isolates from a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Singapore”.

Microbiology Resource Announcements.

12(10), pp. e00689-23.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1128/MRA.00689-23
Hon, Peiyun; Ko, Karrie K.K.; Zhong, Jonathan C.W.; De, Partha P.; Smits, Theo H. M.; Low, Jiaming; Vasoo, Shawn; Tsui, Clement K.M.,

2023.

Genomic identification of two Phytobacter diazotrophicus isolates from a neonatal intensive care unit in Singapore.

Microbiology Resource Announcements.

12(6), pp. e00167-23.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1128/mra.00167-23
Arend, Lavinia N.V.S.; Bergamo, Ricardo; Rocha, Fabiano B.; Bail, Larissa; Ito, Carmen; Baura, Valter A.; Balsanelli, Eduardo; Pothier, Joël F.; Rezzonico, Fabio; Pilonetto, Marcelo; Smits, Theo H.M.; Tuon, Felipe Francisco,

2023.

Dissemination of NDM-producing bacteria in Southern Brazil.

Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease.

106(2), pp. 115930.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2023.115930
Smits, Theo H. M.; Arend, Lavinia N. V. S.; Cardew, Sofia; Tång-Hallbäck, Erika; Mira, Marcelo T.; Moore, Edward R. B.; Sampaio, Jorge L. M.; Rezzonico, Fabio; Pillonetto, Marcelo,

2022.

Resolving taxonomic confusion : establishing the genus Phytobacter on the list of clinically relevant Enterobacteriaceae.

European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases.

41(4), pp. 547-558.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-022-04413-8
Niu, Qiuhong; Liu, Suyao; Yin, Mingshen; Lei, Shengwei; Rezzonico, Fabio; Zhang, Lin,

2022.

Phytobacter diazotrophicus from intestine of Caenorhabditis elegans confers colonization-resistance against Bacillus nematocida using flagellin (FliC) as an inhibition factor.

Pathogens.

11(1), pp. 82.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens11010082

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