ABSTRACT
A biochemical test (NitroSpeed-Carba NP test) was developed to identify carbapenemase production in Enterobacterales and to discriminate between the different types of clinically significant carbapenemases (Ambler classes A, B, and D). It is based on two main features, namely, the hydrolysis by all β-lactamases, including carbapenemases of the nitrocefin substrate, and the capacity of ertapenem to prevent this hydrolysis for all β-lactamases except carbapenemases. Specific carbapenemase inhibitors of class A (avibactam, vaborbactam), class B (dipicolinic acid), and class D (avibactam) were used to inhibit the nitrocefin hydrolysis and to allow the identification of the carbapenemase types with a turnaround time of ca. 30 min. The test was evaluated with a collection of 248 clinical enterobacterial isolates, including 148 carbapenemase producers and 100 non-carbapenemase producers. Its overall sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 97%, respectively, including detection of all types of OXA-48-like carbapenemases. For the detection of the carbapenemase type, including strains that produce double carbapenemases, the sensitivity was 100%, 97%, and 100% for the detection of classes A, B, and D, respectively. This easy-to-implement test may contribute to optimization of the choice of the β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations for treating infection due to carbapenemase producers.
FOOTNOTES
- Received 29 April 2020.
- Returned for modification 22 May 2020.
- Accepted 12 June 2020.
- Accepted manuscript posted online 24 June 2020.
[This article was published on 24 August 2020 with a CC BY 4.0 copyright line (“Copyright © 2020 Nordmann et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.”). The authors elected to remove open access for the article after publication, necessitating replacement of the original copyright line, and this change was made on 29 September 2020.]
- Copyright © 2020 American Society for Microbiology.
