Phenotypic and Genotypic Characterization of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteroides, Parabacteroides spp., and Pseudoflavonifractor from a Costa Rican Hospital

Abstract

Multidrug resistance in Bacteroides spp. and related genera is uncommon and has not been described in Latin America until now. We studied phenotypically and genotypically the multidrug resistance of 10 clinical strains of Bacteroides, two of Parabacteroides distasonis, and one of Pseudoflavonifractor capillosus recovered in a national hospital between 2006 and 2010. To this end, we determined minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of amoxicillin, amoxicillin–clavulanic acid, cefotaxime, imipenem, clindamycin, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, and metronidazole using E-tests, evaluated the isolates for β-lactamases with nitrocefin hydrolysis tests, performed a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based screening of erm, tet, and nim genes, obtained partial gyrA sequences, and studied the effect of tazobactam and efflux pump inhibitors (EPI) on the MIC of cefotaxime, clindamycin, and ciprofloxacin. Three isolates were resistant to four different classes of antibiotics and 10 were resistant to three. β-lactam resistance was in most cases due to β-lactamases susceptible of partial inhibition by tazobactam. Ten isolates were cfxA-positive and two isolates had cepA. Twelve isolates were highly resistant to clindamycin and nine were highly resistant to ciprofloxacin. However, these phenotypes were not linked to ermA, ermB, ermF, and ermG or mutations in gyrA. Addition of EPI lowered the MICs of clindamycin and ciprofloxacin of one and four isolates, respectively. Twelve isolates had tetQ and four were positive for tetM. In both cases, genes of the two-component system RteAB accompanied tet genes. Although metronidazole susceptibility was universal, nim genes were not present. To our knowledge, this is the first report of multidrug resistance due to less commonly identified or alternative mechanisms in strains of Bacteroides and related species from a developing country.