Antimicrobial resistance and genetic analysis of multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis

The resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae strains to antibiotics is an important challenge for human health. The objective of this study was to detect multiple drug resistance in K. pneumoniae isolates multiple drug resistance. Overall, 70 isolates of K. pneumonia were isolated from teaching hospitals of Tehran, Iran. Disc diffusion used to determine the drug resistance pattern and then resistance genes were investigated by PCR method. Finally, the PFGE method used to type 40 isolates. The result of antibiotic resistance showed that 97.5%, 95%, 100%, 97.5%, 100%, 90%, 100%, 100% isolates were resistant to gentamicin, tobramycin, kanamycin, amikacin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, nalidixic acid, and imipenem, respectively. The highest frequency was observed for the qnrB gene (92.5%) and apha6 (12.5%), and the least frequent was IMP (7/5%), qnrS (5%), aadB (2.5%) and aaCc1 (2.5%). In the typing of 40 isolates, 29 different patterns of pulsotypes were observed. Of which 21 isolates had its own unique pattern, while the rest of them had 8 pulsotypes. The isolates of the current study were mostly multidrug resistance. The pulsotypes patterns were also unexpectedly different and a significant clonal association between the K. pneumoniae isolates have not been observed. •Among 70 K. pneumoniae isolates, 40 isolates were multi resistant.•Genes of resistance to antibiotics were present in most of isolates.•The isolates were clustered in more diverse pulsotype patterns