title: Evolution of an integron carrying blaVIM-2 in Eastern Europe: report from the SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Program.
abstract: As part of the SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Program, an imipenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain (81-11963A) was isolated from the blood culture of a female neonate institutionalized at the local children's hospital in Warsaw, Poland. Cloning of an imipenem resistance determinant revealed it to be a VIM-2 metallo-beta-lactamase, but sequence analysis of DNA adjacent to blaVIM-2 revealed it to have a unique gene context. Downstream of the blaVIM-2 gene resides an aacA4 gene encoding the AAC(6')-Ib aminoglycoside acetyltransferase. The integron containing blaVIM-2 shows high similarity to that reported from In58 in France but was novel in that it possessed a gene cassette with a 59 truncated base element only 19 base pairs (bp) long, consisting of a conserved core site and an inverse core site separated by only 5 bp. This appears to be the first report of a metallo-beta-lactamase gene arising from a pathogenic strain in Eastern Europe.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK. t.r.walsh@bristol.ac.uk
authors.forename: Timothy R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Toleman
authors.forename: Waleria
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hryniewicz
authors.forename: Peter M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.forename: Ronald N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D005061:Europe, Eastern / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015378:Imipenem / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D032023:Integrons / Q000235:genetics*; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011044:Poland; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013845:Thienamycins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001618:beta-Lactamases / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D013845:Thienamycins; D015378:Imipenem; C425108:beta-lactamase bla(vim-2); D001618:beta-Lactamases