Molecular and Epidemiological Characterization of

Acinetobacter baumannii
Acinetobacter baumannii is a Gram-negative bacillus that is aerobic, pleomorphic, non-motile and
opportunistic bacterial pathogen primarily associated with the hospital-acquired infections. It basically
have high rates of cases with people who have long stay in hospitals more than 90 days). It is associated
with aquatic environment. Acinetobacter baumannii is a multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria part of a
MDR bacterial group called “ESKAPE,” which stand for Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus,
Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter spp.

Molecular and Epidemiological Characterization of carbapenem Acinetobacter

baumannii found in Chinese Hospitals (FAO report)
Carbapenem resistance rate of Acinetobacter baumannii start showing up in Chinese hospitals in 2004
and since then it is ongoing. The molecular epidemiological characterization of carbapenem resistant A.
baumannii (CRAB) clinical isolates was done by following tests and methods.

 Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) which was performed to determine the sequence types
(STs), and eBURST algorithm which was used to analyze their relatedness.
 Repetitive-sequence-based (REP) PCR or rep-PCR was used to determine carbapenem resistance
related genes (oxa-23, oxa-24, oxa-51, oxa-58, imp, vim, and adeB)
 Where pan-drug susceptible A. baumannii (PSAB) used as control

Analysis
Carbapenem resistance related genes (oxa-23, oxa-24, oxa-51, oxa-58, imp, vim, and adeB) were
screened out by use of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method and it was found 23 STs were
identified in the 65 included isolates where in them ST92 being the predominant clone. PSAB clustered
into more singletons than CRAB. The positivity of oxa-23 and adeB correlated with high level
carbapenem resistance of CRAB ST92 which show their higher rate on increase.

Results on base of observation

The done observations suggest that clonal spread of CRAB ST92 isolates longitudinally is the most
possible reason for increase in carbapenem resistance rate and it is correlated with high level of
carbapenem resistance in our hospitals.

Molecular and Epidemiological Characterization of Carbapenem-Resistant

Acinetobacter baumannii in Korean Hospitals (NCBI report)
The increasing mortality rate and global spread of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (A.
baumannii) is becoming a serious problem. Several strains of this specie were collected from hospitals of
Korea for molecular and epidemiological characterization of Carbapenem-resistant A.baumannii.
Thirty six types of non-duplicated carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii isolates were collected and
molecular and epidemiological characterization was done on basis of multilocus sequence typing and
repetitive-sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) which showed two clones were prevalent among 36 isolates.

1. ST69 (17 isolates, 47.2%)

2. ST92 (19 isolates, 52.8%).

Rep-PCR patterns showed that all isolates were clustered into eight band patterns. The ISAba1-activated
blaOXA-23-like and ISAba1-activated blaOXA-51-like genes were prevalent among the carbapenem-
resistant A. baumannii isolates.

Results

The done observations suggest that clonal spread of CRAB ST92 isolates longitudinally is the most
possible reason for increase in carbapenem resistance rate and it is correlated with high level of
carbapenem resistance in our hospitals.

Final Conclusion
In our all observe cases and hospitals it was found that ST92 clone were mostly dominant in results
found with Carbapenem resistance Acinetobacter baumannii.