Hyderabad researchers find high antimicrobial resistance in eye pathogens

A collaborative study by CCMB and LVPEI reveals alarming antimicrobial resistance in eye infection bacteria in India. Over 45% of isolates are multidrug-resistant, including vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and XDR Klebsiella pneumoniae, raising concerns for antibiotic treatments.

Hyderabad: Researchers from Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) in a collaborative study uncovered alarming levels of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria causing eye infections.

The study, published in Communications Biology, represents one of the most comprehensive genomic analyses of eye pathogens from India to date. The CCMB researchers led the genomic and bioinformatics analyses, and LVPEI researchers contributed clinical expertise, patient samples, and microbiological characterisation.

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The team isolated bacteria from the patient samples and tested them with known antibiotics and found more than 45 per cent of isolates were multidrug-resistant, and included both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial pathogens.

“We found samples with vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and extensively-drug resistant (XDR)-Klebsiella pneumoniae strains involved in eye infections. These findings are worrying because they can spread their AMR genes to other bacteria, too. Also, these pathogens can infect other parts of our bodies,” Dr Karthik Bharadwaj, clinician-scientist at CCMB, in a press release said.

The high prevalence of AMR challenges the continued reliance on antibiotics for treatment, the CCMB researchers said, adding that their study found that all the eye pathogens were also resistant to Fluroquinolones, a frequently used class of antibiotics for eye ailments.

“To understand and solve a problem like AMR, it is essential for clinicians and scientists to come together and contribute through their expertise. This is not a problem to be solved with model organisms but rather with real patient samples,” says Dr Vinay K Nandicoori, Director, CSIR-CCMB.

The authors of the study include Karthik Bharadwaj and Divya Tej Sowpati from CCMB and Dr Joveeta Joseph from LVPEI.