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Abstract Background Several reports have associated Staphylococcus lugdunensis with the incidence of severe infection in humans; however, the frequency and prevalence of this microorganism and thus the propensity of its antimicrobial drug resistance is unknown in China. The objective of the current study was to determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus lugdunensis among six hundred and seventy non-replicate coagulase negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) isolates collected in a 12-month period from clinical specimens in the General Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army in Beijing, China. Results Five (0.7%) of the 670 isolates of CoNS were identified as S. lugdunensis. Whereas three isolates were resistant to erythromycin, clindamycin, and penicillin and carried the ermC gene and a fourth one was resistant to cefoxitin and penicillin and carried the mecA gene, one isolate was not resistant to any of the tested antimicrobials. Pulse field gel electrophoretic analysis did not reveal widespread epidemiological diversity of the different isolates. Conclusion Hence, even though S. lugdunensis may be yet unrecognized and undefined in China, it still might be the infrequent cause of infection and profound multi-drug resistance in the same population.

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (HvKP) is hypermucoviscous organism, carrying genes of rmpA and aerobactin, causing serious community-acquired infection and metastatically spread in young healthy hosts. Neutrophils play an important role during innate immune response against bacterial infection by phagocytosis and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Whether neutrophils can effectively defend against HvKP remains unclear. In this study, we observed that the HvKP was significantly more resistant to neutrophil-mediated phagocytosis and intracellular killing than classic Klebsiella pneumoniae (cKP) isolates. Although both HvKP and cKP induced NETs under scanning electron microscopy and confocal microscopy, more cKP than HvKP were trapped in NETs, and the killing by intracellular and extracellular mechanisms of neutrophils was detected only on cKP. Together, our results demonstrated that HvKP resisted to both intracellular and extracellular killing of neutrophils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The emergence and rapid spreading of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii strains has become a major health threat worldwide. To better understand the genetic recombination related with the acquisition of drug-resistant elements during bacterial infection, we performed complete genome analysis on three newly isolated multidrug-resistant A. baumannii strains from Beijing using next-generation sequencing technology. Methodologies/Principal Findings: Whole genome comparison revealed that all 3 strains share some common drug resistant elements including carbapenem-resistant blaOXA-23 and tetracycline (tet) resistance islands, but the genome structures are diversified among strains. Various genomic islands intersperse on the genome with transposons and insertions, reflecting the recombination flexibility during the acquisition of the resistant elements. The blood-isolated BJAB07104 and ascites-isolated BJAB0868 exhibit high similarity on their genome structure with most of the global clone II strains, suggesting these two strains belong to the dominant outbreak strains prevalent worldwide. A large resistance island (RI) of about 121-kb, carrying a cluster of resistance-related genes, was inserted into the ATPase gene on BJAB07104 and BJAB0868 genomes. A 78-kb insertion element carrying tra-locus and blaOXA-23 island, can be either inserted into one of the tniB gene in the 121-kb RI on the chromosome, or transformed to conjugative plasmid in the two BJAB strains. The third strains of this study, BJAB0715, which was isolated from spinal fluid, exhibit much more divergence compared with above two strains. It harbors multiple drug-resistance elements including a truncated AbaR-22-like RI on its genome. One of the unique features of this strain is that it carries both blaOXA-23 and blaOXA-58 genes on its genome. Besides, an Acinetobacter lwoffii adeABC efflux element was found inserted into the ATPase position in BJAB0715. Conclusions: Our comparative analysis on currently completed Acinetobacter baumannii genomes revealed extensive and dynamic genome organizations, which may facilitate the bacteria to acquire drug-resistance elements into their genomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]