Infection and Drug Resistance (Mar 2021)
In vitro and in vivo Effect of Antimicrobial Agent Combinations Against Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae with Different Resistance Mechanisms in China
Abstract
Enbo Liu, 1,* Peiyao Jia, 1, 2,* Xue Li, 1, 3,* Menglan Zhou, 1, 2 Timothy Kudinha, 4, 5 Chuncai Wu, 1 Yingchun Xu, 1 Qiwen Yang 1 1Department of Clinical Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Complex Severe and Rare Diseases, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730, People’s Republic of China; 2Graduate School, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Clinical Laboratory, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Biomedical Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Orange, 2800, Australia; 5Pathology West, NSW Health Pathology, Orange, 2800, Australia*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Qiwen Yang Tel +86-10-6915-9763Fax +86-10-6915-9766Email [email protected]: This study aimed to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo effects of different combinations of antimicrobial agents against carbapenemase-producing and non-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae from China.Methods: A checkerboard assay of meropenem (MEM), amikacin (AK), tigecycline (TGC), colistin (COL) and their combinations was carried out against 58 clinical carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CRKp) isolates, including 11 carbapenemase-non-producing K. pneumoniae isolates and 21 isolates producing KPC-2 enzyme, 11 NDM-1, 13 IMP, one VIM-1 and one OXA-48. The checkerboard assay was analyzed by the fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI). A time–kill assay and Galleria mellonella infection model were conducted to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo effects of the four drugs alone and in combination.Results: In the checkerboard assay, TGC+AK and MEM+AK combinations showed the highest synergistic effect against KPC-2 and NDM-1 carbapenemase-producing isolates, with synergy+partial synergy (defined as FICI < 1) rates of 76.2% and 71.4% against KPC-2 producers, and 54.5% and 81.8% against NDM-1 producers. TGC+AK and MEM+COL combinations showed the highest rate of synergistic effect against IMP-producing isolates. Against carbapenemase-non-producing isolates, TGC+COL and TGC+AK combinations showed the highest rate of synergy effect (63.6% and 54.5%). MEM+AK showed a synergistic effect against one VIM-1 producer (FICI=0.31) and an additivite effect (FICI=1) against one OXA-48 producer. In the time–kill assay, COL+AK, COL+TGC, COL+MEM and AK+TGC showed good synergistic effects against the KPC-2-producing isolate D16. COL+MEM and COL+TGC combinations showed good effects against the NDM-1-producing isolate L13 and IMP-4-producing isolate L34. Against the carbapenemase-non-producing isolate Y105, MEM+TGC and COL+AK showed high synergistic effects, with log 10CFU/mL decreases of 6.2 and 5.5 compared to the most active single drug. In the G. mellonella survival assay, MEM-based combinations had relatively high survival rates, especially when combined with colistin, against KPC-2 producers (90% survival rate) and with amikacin against metallo-beta-lactamase producers (95– 100% survival rate).Conclusion: Our study suggests that different antimicrobial agent combinations should be considered against CRKp infections with different resistance mechanisms.Keywords: resistance mechanisms, time–kill curve assay, carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, CRKP, antimicrobial agent combinations, Galleria mellonella infection model
