Molecular characterization and diversity of carbapenemases in Gram-negative bacteria in Libyan hospitals.

Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance has become a major threat to public health, especially in developing countries, due to the uncontrolled consumption of antibiotics. This study aims to characterize antibiotic resistance genes in different bacteria recovered in different healthcare facilities in Libya.

Methodology: 379 samples were recovered from various sources from different sites. 210 samples were able to grow on culture media. 133 Gram-negative carbapenem-resistant strains were recovered from clinical specimens (n = 64), and hospital environments (n = 69). Antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed to select carbapenem-resistant strains. Colistin resistance was tested by the UMIC method to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration. RT-PCR was conducted to detect the incidence of carbapenemases-encoding genes.

Results: Gram-negative bacteria showed a low susceptibility to carbapenems. Molecular investigations indicated that NDM-1 was the most prevalent in Enterobacteriaceae isolated from patients and hospital environment (n = 26, n = 41), followed by blaOXA-48 (n = 16, n = 15) and blaVIM (n = 3) from patients and blaKPC (n = 1) from hospital environment. Concerning A. baumannii, blaOXA-23 was detected in strains isolated from patients (n = 8) and hospital environment (n = 6), followed by blaNDM (n = 9) from patients and one from hospital environment. Carbapenem resistance in P. aeruginosa was encoded by modification in OprD encoding gene, such as IS (ISpa26), polymorphism, and a premature stop codon.

Conclusions: Several carbapenem resistant Gram-negative bacteria were identified by the expression of different carbapenemases and the alteration of OprD.