On University at Albany Week: Understanding what drives antimicrobial resistance is crucial.
Cheryl Andam, associate professor in the department of biological sciences at the RNA Institute, identifies a new mechanism.
Cheryl Andam is an associate professor in UAlbany’s Department of Biological Sciences. She works on the genome evolution of bacterial pathogens, with a focus on antimicrobial resistance, pathogenesis and disease transmission.
New Mechanism Driving Antimicrobial Resistance
Antibiotics are a lifesaving tool, yet their chronic overuse has driven microbes to evolve resistance, rendering many treatments ineffective. We identified a genetic mechanism that enables antimicrobial resistance to spread among lethal bacteria.
Klebsiella pneumoniae, a leading cause of blood infections globally, can invade the body and trigger severe immune responses, sometimes leading to organ failure and death. Working with physicians at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, we sought to understand how K. pneumoniae develops resistance by analyzing bacterial genome sequences from infected patients.
We examined K. pneumoniae isolates collected over five years from adult and pediatric patients. We tested their response against 20 antimicrobial agents and identified 64 unique genes conferring resistance to ten antimicrobial drug classes.
A key discovery was the role of plasmids—mobile genetic elements that transfer resistance genes between bacteria. We identified nearly identical plasmids carrying multi-drug resistance genes in K. pneumoniae strains from patients two years apart. This persistence suggests plasmids are a major driver of antimicrobial resistance and help dangerous bacteria strains emerge and spread.
Understanding this mechanism is crucial for developing public health strategies to control high-risk bacteria. Antibiotic resistance is a threat to global health on par with climate change and hunger. Our research underscores the urgent need to understand how bacteria are evolving to resist previously effective drugs, to ensure that antibiotics remain steadfast and effective in the global public health arsenal.
Read More:
[Nature] – Clonal background and routes of plasmid transmission underlie antimicrobial resistance features of bloodstream Klebsiella pneumoniae
