Abstract
ABSTRACT
Background
Antimicrobial-resistant Gram-negative bacteria pose a major threat to global health. In the WHO Bacterial Priority Pathogen List (BPPL) 2024, several species were classified as ‘critical’ or ‘high’ priority for research and development of new antimicrobial therapeutics and diagnostics. However, access to well-characterised and clinically relevant bacterial isolate panels remains an unmet need for development and validation.
Methods
We constructed five panels of Gram-negative bacterial isolates, cultured from samples originally referred to the UK Health Security Agency Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-Associated Infections Reference Unit for analysis between 2014 and 2025. For each isolate, antimicrobial susceptibilities were determined against a range of clinically relevant antibiotics, including third-generation cephalosporins, carbapenems, colistin and other ‘last-line’ antibiotics. WGS was performed on all isolates, and previously described resistance determinants were characterised.
Results
The five panels consist of 145 isolates and represent 81 sequence types across
Escherichia coli
(30 isolates),
Klebsiella pneumoniae
(30 isolates), carbapenem-resistant
Acinetobacter baumannii
(30 isolates), carbapenem-resistant
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
(30 isolates), and a mixed panel of other healthcare-associated Enterobacterales species (25 isolates). Panels are highly representative of globally relevant strains, including those currently in circulation and on the WHO BPPL 2024, and of resistance mechanisms of public health importance.
Conclusion
The panels provide a diverse, comprehensive set of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial isolates, representative of strains currently in circulation globally. Selected isolates carry a breadth of important resistance mechanisms and are highly relevant to the current epidemiological landscape. The isolates and associated metadata are available to industry, academia, and other laboratories for use in developing novel antimicrobial compounds and diagnostic assays.