pQEB1: a hospital outbreak plasmid lineage carrying bla _KPC-2

While conducting genomic surveillance of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPEs) from patient colonisation and clinical infections at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QE), we identified an N-type plasmid lineage, pQEB1, carrying several antibiotic resistance genes including the carbapenemase gene bla _KPC-2 . The pQEB1 lineage is concerning due to its conferral of multi-drug resistance, its host range and apparent transmissibility, and its potential for acquiring further resistance genes. Representatives of pQEB1 were found in three sequence types (STs) of Citrobacter freundii , two STs of Enterobacter cloacae , and three species of Klebsiella . Hosts of pQEB1 were isolated from 11 different patients who stayed in various wards throughout the hospital complex over a 13-month period from January 2023 to February 2024. At present, the only representatives of the pQEB1 lineage in GenBank were carried by an Enterobacter hormaechei isolated from a blood sample at the QE in 2016 and a Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from a urine sample at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) in May 2023. The UHCW patient had been treated at the QE.

Long-read whole-genome sequencing was performed on Oxford Nanopore R10.4.1 flow cells, facilitating comparison of complete plasmid sequences. We identified structural variants of pQEB1 and defined the molecular events responsible for them. These have included IS 26 -mediated inversions and acquisitions of multiple insertion sequences and transposons, including carriers of mercury or arsenic resistance genes. We found that a particular inversion variant of pQEB1 was strongly associated with the QE Liver speciality after appearing in November 2023, but was found in different specialities and wards in January/February 2024. That variant has so far been seen in five different bacterial hosts from six patients, consistent with recent and ongoing inter-host and inter-patient transmission of pQEB1 in this hospital setting.