RISK: If the bacteria undergo another mutation that confers resistance to other types of antibiotics, the pathogen would become untreatable by drugs
By Yang Mien-chieh and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
A strain of pneumonia-causing bacteria could be on the verge of gaining resistance against most antibiotics, a Taiwanese medical research team said, citing evolutionary models.
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) and Taipei Veterans’ General Hospital jointly conducted the study on Klebsiella pneumoniae using data gathered by the hospital, the team said in a statement.
The research was published in the Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in collaboration with Chen Liang (陳亮), a professor of pharmacy at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Taipei Veterans’ General Hospital’s Center for Infection Control director Lin Yi-tsung, front, third right, poses with a research team from the hospital and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in an undated photograph.
Photo courtesy of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
The hospital’s Center for Infection Control director Lin Yi-tsung (林邑璁), who is also a professor of emergency and critical medicine at the NYCU, said multiple drug resistance was observed in bacteria collected from two people’s urine and phlegm samples.
Analysis showed that the K pneumoniae penicillin-binding protein 3 site is blocked by a tetrapetite named tyrosine-arginine-isoleucine-threonine (YRIT), which acts as an armor against antibacterial drugs, he said.
A germ with YRIT is protected against penicillins, cephalosporins and monobactams, the antibiotic triad most commonly used to treat infections, he said.
The study marked the first time a bacterium other than Escherichia coli possessed a genetic mutation that allows the production of the YRIT amino acid sequence in Taiwan, Lin said.
This bacterial strain also contains mutations that make it highly contagious, he said.
Should the bacteria undergo a new genetic mutation that confers resistance to other classes of antibiotics, the pathogen would become untreatable by drugs, making it a threat to global public health, Lin said.
The two people, who were hospitalized during the COVID-19 pandemic, had no relations or contact with one another, he added.
The research proved that the genetic mutation leading to the YRIT sequence can make the species leap from E coli to K pneumoniae, which the WHO deems to pose a high risk of spreading inside hospitals, he said.
The discovery of drug-resistant K pneumoniae showed the urgency for developing a system to monitor germ genetics, new antibiotics and patient containment protocols, he said.