Plasmid-Mediated Carbapenem-Hydrolyzing Enzyme KPC-2 in an Enterobacter sp.

A strain of an Enterobacter sp. with reduced susceptibility to imipenem, which produced a plasmid-mediated class A carbapenem-hydrolyzing enzyme, KPC-2 -lactamase, was isolated from a patient with sepsis at a Boston hospital. This is the first report of the production of a plasmid-encoded KPC-2 -lactamase by an Enterobacter sp. Molecular class A carbapenem-hydrolyzing -lactamases are clavulanate susceptible and may possess the ability to hydro-lyze all anti-gram-negative -lactam antibiotics, including car-bapenems (3). Although rarely encountered in gram-negative clinical isolates, these enzymes are being reported with increas-ing frequency (5). The first of the KPC-type class A carbapen-em-hydrolyzing enzymes, KPC-1, was named to indicate its occurrence in Klebsiella pneumoniae (11). To date, two relate