Area of research
Molecular Medicine · Endocrinology
Research interest
Research topics from publications: The role of type VI secretion system genes in antibiotic resistance and virulence in Acinetobacter baumannii clinical isolates; The optimized carbapenem inactivation method for objective and accurate detection of carbapenemase-producing Acinetobacter baumannii. Representative work: Introduction The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a crucial virulence factor in the nosocomial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii . However, its association with drug resistance is less well known. Notably, the roles that different T6SS components play in the process of antimicrobial resistance, as well as in virulence, have not been systematically revealed. Methods The importance of three representative T6SS core genes involved in the drug resistance and virulence of A. baumannii , namely, tssB , tssD ( hcp ), and tssM was elucidated. Results A higher ratio of the three core genes was detected in drug-resistant strains than in susceptible strains among our 114 A. baumannii clinical isolates The modified carbapenem inactivation method (mCIM) recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute is not applicable for detecting carbapenemases in Acinetobacter baumannii . Four currently reported phenotypic detection methods, namely, the modified Hodge test, the mCIM, the adjusted mCIM, and the simplified carbapenem inactivation method (sCIM), did not perform well in our 90 clinical A. baumannii isolates. Thus, the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of carbapenems and the existence and expression of carbapenemase-encoding genes were detected to explain the results. According to the E-test, which was more accurate than the VITEK 2 system, 80.0 and 41.1% were resistant