Rapid transmission of multidrug-resistant Corynebacterium striatum among susceptible patients in a tertiary hospital in China

Abstract

Introduction: With increasing reports about Corynebacterium striatum, its potential pathogenicity and clinical significance are drawing more attention in recent years. Methodology: During a 14-month period, Corynebacterium striatum strains were routinely isolated in lower respiratory tract samples of the inpatients in a tertiary hospital in China, and the suspected isolates were identified with VITEK-2 ANC card and 16S rRNA sequencing technique, respectively. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was employed to discriminate different clones, and biofilm-producing abilities of different strains were compared. Results: A total of 82 strains of Corynebacterium striatum were mainly isolated from neurosurgery patients (45.1%, 37/82). Three epidemic clones (type D, F, and I) were identified, accounting for 82.9% (68/82) of strains. All 82 C. striatum strains were all sensitive to vancomycin, and resistant to ceftriaxone, imipenem, and ciprofloxacin. One week before C. striatum isolation, 89.0% (73/82) patients showed lower levels of hemoglobin, 93.9% (77/82) of patients received treatment of several kinds of antibiotics, and 41.5% (34/82) patients with glucocorticoid, and 46.3% (38/82) of patients showed disturbed consciousness at different levels. Conclusions: Corynebacterium striatum strains isolated during this study were mainly multidrug resistant, and the predominant clones could rapidly transmit among susceptible inpatients. Corynebacterium striatum seems to be an important pathogen for patients with specific risk factors, especially for the ones with lower hemoglobin levels who are being treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Antimicrobial Resistance and Pathogenicity of Corynebacterium Striatum Clinical Isolates Collected from Three Tertiary Hospitals in China

“…It is reported that C. striatum can colonize onto multiple environmental and bodily surfaces and could transmit within patients in specific wards [12,13]. Also, the multi-drug resistant C. striatum clones seemed to be with stronger adhesion abilities [14] , which was consistent with one of our previous study [15], which may partly explain the reason why C. striatum can rapidly transmit within hospital environment. Moreover, Souza C et al [16] reported that C. striatum could lead to the death of Caenorhabditis elegans, and virulence potential varied among different C. striatum clones.…”

“…In general, the whole genomic DNA chromosome of the C. striatum was extracted, and macrorestriction digestion (SwaI) and PFGE (CHEF-DR II apparatus; Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA, USA) were performed as previously reported [15]. Macrorestriction patterns were analysed using Dice coefficient with Bionumerics software (Applied Maths, Kortrijk, Belgium,Version 5.0).…”

Antimicrobial Resistance and Molecular Epidemiology of Corynebacterium striatum Isolated in a Tertiary Hospital in Turkey

“…Corynebacterium striatum is frequently isolated from patients hospitalized long-term, treated with invasive procedures, and having underlying diseases such as COPD [12,13,19,20]. In this study, the most common underlying disease in patients was COPD, followed by cardiovascular diseases and cerebrovascular diseases.…”

“…Alibi et al [23] detected 22 PFGE profile in 63 C. striatum strains from Tunisia and reported high clonal diversity among strains. Wang et al [19] reported that three epidemic clones were spread by PFGE in 82 C. striatum strains isolated from patients' respiratory samples between 2013 and 2014 in China. Wang et al [24] applied PFGE to 192 C. striatum isolated between 2017 and 2018, and also performed whole genome sequencing in 91 C. striatum isolates and reported that there was multiclonal spread within the hospital simultaneously.…”

Super-dominant pathobiontic bacteria in the nasopharyngeal microbiota as causative agents of secondary bacterial infection in influenza patients

“…The isolation and identification of pathobiontic bacteria was attempted from clinical samples, that is, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BLF), endotracheal aspirates (ES), sputum, and blood [16]. The genetic relatedness of the resulting isolates was analysed using pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) [17][18][19][20][21][22], whole genome sequencing, and sequence comparisons (Supplemental Methods).…”