Molecular mechanisms and prevalence of colistin resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae in the Middle East region: A review over the last 5 years

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Klebsiella pneumoniae is a serious clinical and public health problem, and colistin is the last-resort treatment option for MDR infections. However, resistance to colistin has been increasingly reported in the world, such as the Middle East region, where antibiotics are used more in the human and agriculture industry. In this paper, we review the available data on the molecular mechanisms and prevalence of colistin resistance of K. pneumoniae in the Middle East over the last 5 years. To the best of our knowledge, 590 colistin-resistant K. pneumoniae isolates were reported from six countries, including Turkey (438), Iran (86), Saudi Arabia (24), United Arab Emirates (31), Kuwait (5), Israel (3) and Lebanon (3), between 2013 and 2018. However, there has been no reports about colistin resistance among K. pneumoniae isolates in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Cyprus. Moreover, it seems that mutations and insertion sequence transpositions in the mgrB gene were the most common colistin resistance mechanisms among K. pneumoniae in the Middle East region, which is similar to other parts of the world.

Keywords: Colistin resistance; Klebsiella pneumonia; Middle East; Molecular mechanisms; Prevalence.