Identification of the blaOXA-23 Gene in the First Mucoid XDR Acinetobacter baumannii Isolated from a Patient with Cystic Fibrosis

Martina Rossitto; Gianluca Vrenna; Vanessa Tuccio Guarna Assanti; Nour Essa; Maria Luisa De Santis; Annarita Granaglia; Vanessa Fini; Valentino Costabile; Manuela Onori; Luca Cristiani; Alessandra Boni; Renato Cutrera; Carlo Federico Perno; Paola Bernaschi

doi:10.3390/jcm12206582

Identification of the bla_OXA-23 Gene in the First Mucoid XDR Acinetobacter baumannii Isolated from a Patient with Cystic Fibrosis

J Clin Med. 2023 Oct 18;12(20):6582. doi: 10.3390/jcm12206582.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Multimodal Laboratory Medicine, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy.
² Major School in Microbiology and Virology, University Campus Bio-Medico, 00128 Rome, Italy.
³ Microbiology and Diagnostic Immunology Unit, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy.
⁴ Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy.
⁵ Pneumology and Cystic Fibrosis Unit, Bambino Gesù Children Hospital, IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy.

Abstract

Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the pathogens most involved in health care-associated infections in recent decades. Known for its ability to accumulate several antimicrobial resistance mechanisms, it possesses the oxacillinase bla_oxa-23, a carbapenemase now endemic in Italy. Acinetobacter species are not frequently observed in patients with cystic fibrosis, and multidrug-resistant A. baumannii is a rare event in these patients. Non-mucoid A. baumannii carrying the bla_oxa-23 gene has been sporadically detected. Here, we describe the methods used to detect bla_oxa-23 in the first established case of pulmonary infection via a mucoid strain of A. baumannii producing carbapenemase in a 24-year-old cystic fibrosis patient admitted to Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital in Rome, Italy. This strain, which exhibited an extensively drug-resistant antibiotype, also showed a great ability to further increase its resistance in a short time.

Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii; beta-lactamase OXA-23; cystic fibrosis; mucoid; multidrug resistance.

Publication types

Case Reports

Grants and funding

This research was supported by EU funding within the NextGenerationEU-MUR PNRR Extended Partnership initiative on Emerging Infectious Diseases (Project no. PE00000007, INF-ACT).