Colistin-Resistant Gene Detected In The US For The Second Time

A colistin resistance gene, mcr-1 has been detected in humans for the second time in the United States.

The research, which is the most comprehensive and contemporary surveillance data for mcr-1 to date, was printed in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology on June 27, 2016.

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The authors of the study first examined 13,525 Escherichia coli and 7,481 Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical strains that have been gathered from hospitals in the Latin America, Asia-Pacific region, North America and Europe in 2015. They discovered that 390 or 1.9 percent were resistant to colistin and 19 of these isolates were tested positive for mcr-1.

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The 19 isolates discovered in ten countries. On the other hand, only one, an isolate of E.coli was originally recovered in 2015 from a patient in New York. The first detection of the mcr-1-positive E.coli was recognized from a patient in Pennsylvania.

Mariana Castanheira, Ph.D., Director of Molecular and Microbiology at JML Laboratories said that the isolated that tested positive for mcr-1 were vulnerable to common microbial agents. These include the carbapenems, cephalosporin and recently approved anti-microbial agents that can be used against gram-negative bacteria. According to Castanheira, these and similar isolates are unlikely to cause hard to treat infections at this time.

She explained the fact that the gene has been detected in food livestock and raw meat. She added that the prospect of a mobile gene encoding resistance to colistin spreading among isolates resistant to most antimicrobial agents clinically available is threatening for the therapy of serious infection caused by isolates.