Title
Authors
Affiliation
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, India; *Corresponding author
Rashmi - E-mail: rashmi.0714@kgmcindia.edu; Phone: +91 9335860714
Vimala Venkatesh - E-mail: vimalavenkatesh@kgmcindia.edu; Phone: +91
9335912340
Sheetal Verma - E-mail: sheetalverma@kgmcindia.edu; Phone: +91
9936269516
Upma Singh - E-mail: upma@kgmcindia.edu; Phone: +91 9569294998
Article Type
Research Article
Date
Received March 1, 2026; Revised March 31, 2026; Accepted March 31, 2026, Published March 31, 2026
Abstract
Klebsiella pneumoniae is a major opportunistic pathogen and an important cause of multidrug-resistant gram-negative infections, driven largely by the spread of ESBL and carbapenemase enzymes. Therefore, it is of interest to analyse the phenotypic resistance patterns and molecular resistome of 100 non-duplicate clinical isolates collected from a tertiary care hospital in North India using CLSI-guided susceptibility testing, mCIM/eCIM assays and PCR detection of resistance genes. Overall, 51% of isolates were MDR, with high resistance to cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones and penicillins and the highest carbapenem resistance was observed for ertapenem (57%). Carbapenem-resistant isolates comprised 40%, of which 70% produced metallo-β-lactamases and 10% serine β-lactamases, while ESBL genes (blaCTX-M-1 54%, blaSHV 50%, blaTEM 28%) and carbapenemases (blaNDM 22%, blaOXA-48 23%) were frequently detected, including ESBL-carbapenemase co-harbouring in 35% and a -super-resistome in 2%. Thus, we show the urgent need for sustained molecular surveillance, strict infection control and strengthened antimicrobial stewardship to curb the dissemination of highly resistant K. pneumoniae.
Keywords
Multi-drug resistance (MDR); antimicrobial resistance (AMR); extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBLs); carbapenemase; super-resistome; carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae
Citation
Rashmi et al. Bioinformation 22(3): 1295-1301 (2026)
Edited by
P Kangueane
ISSN
0973-2063
Publisher
License
This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
