Epidemiological insights into global metallo-β-lactamases-producing pseudomonas aeruginosa: A comprehensive analysis...

This study aims to analyze the distribution of metallo-β-lactamase (MβLs) encoding genes in global Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Genomes of P. aeruginosa (21,788 in total) were obtained from the NCBI database and annotated using Prodigal to ensure consistency. Blastn analysis was conducted to compare the structured bla_MβL databases with annotated genomes to obtain detailed distribution of all bla_MβL genes in all genomes. A self-written sequence typing tool was utilized for sequence typing analysis on bla_MβL carrying P. aeruginosa, and meta-information of strains was extracted for further analysis. Out of 21,788 genomes, 2,639 (12.1%) contained 4,014 bla_MβL, with bla_VIM being the most prevalent (51.2%), followed by bla_IMP (24.1%) and bla_NDM (23.4%). Twenty-four bla_VIM variants, with bla_VIM-2 being the most common, accounting for 73.2%; There are 39 variants of bla_IMP, mainly bla_IMP-1 and bla_IMP-7, accounting for 16.1% and 14.5%, respectively. Among 2,639 P. aeruginosa carrying bla_MβL, 109 distinct sequence types (STs) were identified, with ST235 (16.8%) and ST111 (16.7%) being the predominant types, followed by ST308 (372, 14.1%), ST233 (190, 7.2%), ST357 (144, 5.5%), ST1203 (108, 4.1%), and ST773 (105, 4.0%). Notably, bla_MβL-producing P. aeruginosa showed a continuous increase, peaking in 2019 since first detection in 1997. These strains were predominantly isolated from human sources (1,836, 69.6%), primarily from urine samples (21.9%). The predominant metalloenzymes in global P. aeruginosa are bla_VIM-2, bla_IMP-1, and bla_IMP-7, primarily associated with epidemic high-risk clones ST235, ST111, and ST308. Given the rising trend of bla_MβL-producing P. aeruginosa, enhanced infection prevention and control measures are warranted.