Altered metabolic pathways in classic and hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates revealed by proteomics analysis

Abstract

Klebsiella pneumoniae is an opportunistic pathogen that causes a wide range of infections. The emergence and spread of hypervirulent K. pneumoniae (hvKp), which appears to be different from the classical K. pneumoniae (cKp) in several microbiological aspects, is an urgent global threat. However, the virulence characteristics of hvKp and its differences from cKp are poorly understood. This work aimed to investigate the correlation between the expression characteristics of proteins and hypervirulence, using proteomics. Our results revealed that 185 proteins were upregulated while 266 proteins were downregulated in hvKp isolates when compared with cKp isolates. The differentially expressed proteins were functionally categorized according to the Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway. These proteins were predominantly metabolism associated, which indicates that changes in the metabolic pathways in hvKp isolates might in part contribute to hypervirulence.