Molecular Characterization of Penicillinase–Producing <i>Neisseria gonorrhoeae</i> Isolated in Two Time Periods, 2003–2004 and 2014–2015, in Italy
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The emergence of antibiotic resistant strains poses a great concern for gonorrhea treatment. The aim of this study was to characterize penicillinase–producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae (PPNG) isolates collected in Italy in two time frames, 2003–2004 and 2014–2015. A total of 80 PPNG were characterized for the bla TEM gene variant and the plasmid type. Furthermore, gonococci were typed using Neisseria gonorrhoeae multiantigen sequence typing. Antibiotic susceptibility assay was performed for penicillin, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, and spectinomycin by Etest and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) test strip methods. The β-lactamase production was detected using nitrocefin test. Among PPNG isolates, four bla TEM alleles were identified as follows: bla TEM-1 , bla TEM-228 , bla TEM P14S, and bla TEM-135 . The African plasmid possessed the bla TEM-1 , bla TEM-228 , and bla TEM P14S, whereas bla TEM-135 was identified in Toronto/Rio and Asian plasmids. The percentage of isolates with the bla TEM-1 -carrying African plasmid increased from 42.5% in 2003–2004 to 55% in 2014–2015; conversely, the isolates with bla TEM-135 -carrying Toronto/Rio plasmid decreased from 57.5% to 35%. Among the isolates carrying the Toronto/Rio plasmids possessing bla TEM-135 , sequence type (ST)661 and ST5624 were found to be the predominant STs in both periods 2003–2004 and 2014–2015, respectively. More than half of the PPNG isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin. Increase in the isolates carrying the African plasmid possessing bla TEM-1 and a parallel decrease of the bla TEM-135 -carrying Toronto/Rio plasmid was observed. Moreover, PPNG isolate harbored Toronto/Rio plasmid with bla TEM-135 belonged mainly to two major STs (ST661 and ST5624). Given the possible role of a mutated bla TEM gene as an additional mechanism to extended spectrum β-lactamase resistance, it is crucial to monitor gonococci carrying these resistance genes.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".