Purpose: Catheter-related infection (CRI) is one of the most frequent causes of hospitalizations for immunocompromised patients. A major challenge is the increased prevalence of Myroides odoratimimus . The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the clinical features and molecular characteristics of M. odoratimimus  collected from a general hospital in Shanghai, China.
Patients and Methods: From July 2015 to August 2016, a total of 22 isolates of M. odoratimimus  were collected from inpatients respectively from the biliary and pancreatic surgery (6/22) and the urology department (16/22). Clonal relatedness among the isolates was assessed using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Moreover, the antimicrobial susceptibility tests were carried out using the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) broth microdilution method. The presence of antibiotic resistance genes was screened using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. Additionally, protein structure prediction was analyzed using PSIPRED and RaptorX.
Results: PFGE differentiated these isolates into six possibly related clones from two different departments obtained during a distinct period, indicating clonal dissemination in the two departments. We compared the dendrograms of M. odoratimimus  isolates obtained by MALDI-TOF MS with those obtained by PFGE and found that the coincidence rate between them was only 68.2%. All the M. odoratimimus  isolates were highly resistant to most available antibiotics, including carbapenems. Furthermore, chromosome-encoded β-lactamases MUS-1 was confirmed by PCR in 6 of 22 Myroides odoratimimus  isolates. Herein, we also reported a novel variant of bla_MUS-1 in the remaining 16 isolates, which encodes MUS-3 protein at position 60 (Valine to Alanine), differing from the structure of MUS-1.
Conclusion: The opportunistic and extensively antibiotic-resistant Myroides odoratimimus  has a small range of epidemics in these two different departments. Clinicians should be aware that M. odoratimimus  may induce a severe nosocomial outbreak of catheter-related infections, particularly in immunocompromised patients.
Keywords: Flavobacterium, Myroides odoratimimus , MUS-1, nosocomial, outbreak