Increased frequency of blaNDM in a tertiary care hospital in Southern Brazil

Resistance to carbapenems due to metallo-beta-lactamase NDM-1 was first described in Brazil in 2013. To date, only a few scattered reports of the prevalence of NDM-1 in the country have been reported, and most of them indicated a very low prevalence of this metalloenzyme. In the present study, we report a steady increase in the frequency of NDM among Enterobacterales resistant to carbapenems in a tertiary care hospital in southern Brazil. Carbapenemase genes were evaluated by multiplex real-time polymerase chain using high-resolution melting analysis among 3501 isolates of 8 different species of Enterobacterales recovered from January 2015 to May 2020. The blaKPC-like was identified in 3003 isolates (85.8%) and the blaNDM-like was the second most common gene (351 isolates—10%). There was a steady increase in frequency of blaNDM-like, from 4.2% in 2015 to 24%in 2020. The increase of blaNDM frequency raises an important matter as novel therapeutic options are currently very limited for the treatment of patients infected by bacteria carrying the blaNDM

Purification of recombinant Erwinia carotovora subsp. atroseptica L-Asparaginase II produced in Escherichia coli

Abstract The bacterial enzyme asparaginase has been used in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treatment for approximately 30 year