Poster Presentation 50th Lorne Proteins Conference 2025

Looking deeper into outer membrane porin loss and resistance to β-lactam drugs including carbapenems in Klebsiella pneumoniae. (#154)

Jiahui Li 1 2 , Thomas Stanton 2 3 , Kwok Jian Goh 1 3 , Ben Vezina 2 3 , Kelly Wyres 2 3 , Trevor Lithgow 1 3
  1. Infection and Immunity Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  2. Centre to Impact AMR, Monash University, , Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  3. Department of Infectious Diseases, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

 

In recent years, many infection cases caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae, leading to severe infections like liver abscess and bacteraemia, has increased due to the emergence of hypervirulent and antimicrobial resistant (AMR) strains (1). And β-lactam antibiotics are still recommended for the treatment of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae infections (2). However, the growing resistance K. pneumoniae against β-lactam antibiotics demands comprehensive research into the underlying drug resistance mechanisms. It is demonstrated that outer membrane proteins (OMPs), specifically the major porins, play an important role in drug permeability, and the reduction of major porins has been correlated with resistance to β-lactams drugs. And based on the genome data, a high mutation rate is observed in some sequence types (e.g. ST258/512, ST15, ST101 and ST231) of K. pneumoniae belonging to common prevalent AMR clones worldwide. But, the regulatory mechanisms among the four major porins (OmpK35, OmpK36, OmpK37, and OmpK38) in β-lactam-resistant K. pneumoniae hasn’t been solved yet. This project aims to investigate the relationship between the porins-defeats mutation in OMPs (ompK35, ompK36, ompK37 and/or ompK38) and resistance to β-lactams in K. pneumoniae by utilizing a combination of experimental approaches and genome analysis to gain comprehensive insights into this topic.

 

  1. Paczosa, M.K. and J. Mecsas, Klebsiella pneumoniae: Going on the Offense with a Strong Defense. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev, 2016. 80(3): p. 629-61.
  2. Ashurst, J.V. and A. Dawson, Klebsiella Pneumonia, in StatPearls. 2023: Treasure Island(FL) ineligible companies. Disclosure: Adam Dawson declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.