Characterization of VIM-2, a Carbapenem-Hydrolyzing Metallo-β-Lactamase and Its Plasmid- and Integron-Borne Gene from a Pseudomonas aeruginosa Clinical Isolate in France

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa COL-1 was identified in a blood culture of a 39-year-old-woman treated with imipenem in Marseilles, France, in 1996. This strain was resistant to β-lactams, including ureidopenicillins, ticarcillin-clavulanic acid, cefepime, ceftazidime, imipenem, and meropenem, but remained susceptible to the monobactam aztreonam. The carbapenem-hydrolyzing β-lactamase gene of P. aeruginosa COL-1 was cloned, sequenced, and expressed in Escherichia coli DH10B. The deduced 266-amino-acid protein was an Ambler class B β-lactamase, with amino acid identities of 32% with B-II from Bacillus cereus ; 31% with IMP-1 from several gram-negative rods in Japan, including P. aeruginosa ; 27% with CcrA from Bacteroides fragilis ; 24% with BlaB from Chryseobacterium meningosepticum ; 24% with IND-1 from Chryseobacterium indologenes ; 21% with CphA-1 from Aeromonas hydrophila ; and 11% with L-1 from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia . It was most closely related to VIM-1 β-lactamase recently reported from Italian P. aeruginosa clinical isolates (90% amino acid identity). Purified VIM-2 β-lactamase had a pI of 5.6, a relative molecular mass of 29.7 kDa, and a broad substrate hydrolysis range, including penicillins, cephalosporins, cephamycins, oxacephamycins, and carbapenems, but not monobactams. As a metallo-β-lactamase, its activity was zinc dependent and inhibited by EDTA (50% inhibitory concentration, 50 μM). VIM-2 conferred a resistance pattern to β-lactams in E. coli DH10B that paralleled its in vitro hydrolytic properties, except for susceptibility to ureidopenicillins, carbapenems, and cefepime. bla VIM-2 was located on a ca. 45-kb plasmid that in addition conferred resistance to sulfamides and that was not self-transmissible either from P. aeruginosa to E. coli or from E. coli to E. coli. bla VIM-2 was the only gene cassette located within the variable region of a novel class 1 integron, In56, that was weakly related to the bla VIM-1 -containing integron. VIM-2 is the second carbapenem-hydrolyzing metalloenzyme characterized from a P. aeruginosa isolate outside Japan.