Whole-Genome Sequencing Reveals the High Nosocomial Transmission and Antimicrobial Resistance of Clostridioides difficile in a Single Center in China, a Four-Year Retrospective Study
Clostridioides difficile, which causes life-threatening diarrheal disease, presents an urgent threat to health care systems. In this study, we present a retrospective genomic and epidemiological analysis of C. difficile in a large teaching hospital. First, we collected 894 nonduplicate fecal samples from patients during a whole year to elucidate the C. difficile molecular epidemiology. We then presented a detailed description of the population structure of C. difficile based on 270 isolates separated between 2015 and 2020 and clarified the genetic and phenotypic features by MIC and whole-genome sequencing. We observed a high carriage rate (19.4%, 173/894) of C. difficile among patients in this hospital. The population structure of C. difficile was diverse with a total of 36 distinct STs assigned. In total, 64.8% (175/270) of the isolates were toxigenic, including four CDT-positive (C. difficile transferase) isolates, and 50.4% (135/268) of the isolates were multidrug-resistant. Statistically, the rates of resistance to erythromycin, moxifloxacin, and rifaximin were higher for nontoxigenic isolates. Although no vancomycin-resistant isolates were detected, the MIC for vancomycin was higher for toxigenic isolates (P < 0.01). The in-hospital transmission was observed, with 43.8% (110/251) of isolates being genetically linked to a prior case. However, no strong correlation was detected between the genetic linkage and epidemiological linkage. Asymptomatic colonized patients play the same role in nosocomial transmission as infected patients, raising the issue of routine screening of C. difficile on admission. This work provides an in-depth description of C. difficile in a hospital setting and paves the way for better surveillance and effective prevention of related diseases in China. IMPORTANCE Clostridioides difficile infections (CDI) are the leading cause of healthcare-associated diarrhea and are known to be resistant to multiple antibiotics. In the past decade, C. difficile has emerged rapidly and has spread globally, causing great concern among American and European countries. However, research on CDI remains limited in China. Here, we characterized the comprehensive spectrum of C. difficile by whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in a Chinese hospital, showing a high detection rate among patients, diverse genome characteristics, a high level of antibiotic resistance, and an unknown nosocomial transmission risk of C. difficile. During the study period, two C. difficile transferase (CDT)-positive isolates belonging to a new multilocus sequence type (ST820) were detected, which have caused serious clinical symptoms. This work describes C. difficile integrally and provides new insight into C. difficile surveillance based on WGS in China.
基金:
National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant
numbers 82061128001 and 81830103), National Key Research and Development Program
(grant number 2017ZX10302301), Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (grant number
2017A030306012), Project of high-level health teams of Zhuhai at 2018 (The Innovation
Team for Antimicrobial Resistance and Clinical Infection), 111 Project (grant number
B12003), and Open Project of Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control (Sun Yat-sen
University), Ministry of Education (grant numbers 2020kfkt04 and 2020kfkt07).
第一作者机构:[1]Sun Yat Sen Univ, Dept Microbiol, Zhongshan Sch Med, Guangzhou, Peoples R China[2]Sun Yat Sen Univ, Minist Educ, Key Lab Trop Dis Control, Guangzhou, Peoples R China
通讯作者:
通讯机构:[1]Sun Yat Sen Univ, Dept Microbiol, Zhongshan Sch Med, Guangzhou, Peoples R China[2]Sun Yat Sen Univ, Minist Educ, Key Lab Trop Dis Control, Guangzhou, Peoples R China
推荐引用方式(GB/T 7714):
Wen Xin,Shen Cong,Xia Jinyu,et al.Whole-Genome Sequencing Reveals the High Nosocomial Transmission and Antimicrobial Resistance of Clostridioides difficile in a Single Center in China, a Four-Year Retrospective Study[J].MICROBIOLOGY SPECTRUM.2022,10(1):doi:10.1128/spectrum.01322-21.
APA:
Wen, Xin,Shen, Cong,Xia, Jinyu,Zhong, Lan-Lan,Wu, Zhongwen...&Tian, Guo-Bao.(2022).Whole-Genome Sequencing Reveals the High Nosocomial Transmission and Antimicrobial Resistance of Clostridioides difficile in a Single Center in China, a Four-Year Retrospective Study.MICROBIOLOGY SPECTRUM,10,(1)
MLA:
Wen, Xin,et al."Whole-Genome Sequencing Reveals the High Nosocomial Transmission and Antimicrobial Resistance of Clostridioides difficile in a Single Center in China, a Four-Year Retrospective Study".MICROBIOLOGY SPECTRUM 10..1(2022)