Molecular Insights into Antimicrobial Resistance Traits of Multidrug Resistant Enteric Pathogens isolated from India

Abstract

Emergence of antimicrobial resistant Gram-negative bacteria has created a serious global health crisis and threatens the effectiveness of most, if not all, antibiotics commonly used to prevent and treat bacterial infections. There is a dearth of detailed studies on the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) patterns in India. Here, we have isolated and examined AMR patterns of 654 enteric pathogens and investigated complete genome sequences of isolates from six representative genera, which in aggregate encode resistance against 22 antibiotics representing nine distinct drug classes. This study revealed that ~97% isolates are resistant against ≥2 antibiotics, ~24% isolates are resistant against ≥10 antibiotics and ~3% isolates are resistant against ≥15 antibiotics. Analyses of whole genome sequences of six extensive drug resistant enteric pathogens revealed presence of multiple mobile genetic elements, which are physically linked with resistance traits. These elements are therefore appearing to be responsible for disseminating drug resistance among bacteria through horizontal gene transfer. The present study provides insights into the linkages between the resistance patterns to certain antibiotics and their usage in India. The findings would be useful to understand the genetics of resistance traits and severity of and difficulty in tackling AMR enteric pathogens.

Horizontal Gene Transfer: From Evolutionary Flexibility to Disease Progression

“…Data showed that the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) pattern of the 654 enteric bacteria pathogens from six representative genera was encoding resistance against 22 antibiotics from nine distinct drug classes. The presence of multiple MGEs and HGT were confirmed using WGS in the six extensive drug-resistant enteric pathogens (Kumar et al, 2017).…”

“…Likewise, acquiring bacterial pathogenicity islands (PAIs) can convert otherwise harmless species into potential pathogens (Thomas and Nielsen, 2005;Bliven and Maurelli, 2016). Needleless to say, this modification is of critical importance considering that the incorporation of ARGs into the host bacterial genomes have caused serious health problems throughout the history of mankind (Kumar et al, 2017). Generally, genetic material exchange among prokaryotes can cause genetic evolution and environmental adaptation which further promotes the acquiring of drug resistance.…”

Extended-spectrum β-lactamase prevalence and virulence factor characterization of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli responsible for acute diarrhea in Nepal from 2001 to 2016

“…Initial reports of community-associated ESBL-producing E. coli strains, including reports originating from Nepal, are mainly comprised of pathogens isolated from urinary tract or blood stream infections [ 35 – 39 ]. However, community-associated infections isolated from enteric MDR pathogens are being increasingly reported in South and Southeast Asia [ 8 , 11 , 12 , 22 , 26 , 30 ].…”

Genomic plasticity associated with antimicrobial resistance in Vibrio cholerae

“…Several mechanisms such as efflux pumps, reduced permeability, alternative metabolic pathways, target modifications, enzymatic inactivation of antimicrobials, and so forth can confer antibiotic resistance in bacterial species (8). Many of the antibiotic resistance genes are physically linked with mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and disseminate to closely or distantly related bacterial species by lateral and vertical gene transfer (9,10). The genes that encode resistance function and the genetic elements that carry the resistance genes widely vary depending upon the type of pathogen and their geographic locations (11).…”