Taipei:Researchers at Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University have identified a novel drug-resistant strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae in Taiwan, marking a significant breakthrough in the study of antibiotic resistance.
According to Focus Taiwan, the discovery was made through a collaborative study involving Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, in partnership with Chen Liang, a professor at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. The findings, which highlight Taiwan's first clinical cases of this strain, were published in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The strain was isolated from samples of two COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized at Taipei Veterans General Hospital in 2021. These patients had received standard antibiotic treatments, but the bacteria exhibited resistance due to a newly identified mutation. This mutation involves the insertion of four amino acids—tyrosine, arginine, isoleucine, and threonine—into penicillin-binding protein 3, altering its structure and reducing the effectiveness of several antibiotic classes.
Despite the strain's resistance, the patients recovered. The study, led by Lin Yi-tsung from NYCU, indicates that resistance mechanisms observed in E. coli could potentially transfer between bacterial species, posing challenges for treating infections. Lin emphasized the need for ongoing genomic surveillance and the development of new therapies to address drug-resistant bacteria.
The press release from NYCU warned that this strain could evolve into a nearly untreatable "superbug" if it acquired additional mutations or enzymes. Klebsiella pneumoniae, known for causing hospital-acquired infections such as pneumonia and urinary tract infections, is recognized by the World Health Organization as a priority pathogen due to its resistance capabilities.
