| Summary: | <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i>, one of the most common pathogens found in hospital-acquired infections, is often resistant to multiple antibiotics. In fact, multidrug-resistant (MDR) <i>K. pneumoniae</i> producing KPC or OXA-48-like carbapenemases are recognized as a serious global health threat. In this sense, we evaluated the virulence of <i>K. pneumoniae</i> KPC(+) or OXA-48(+) aiming at potential antimicrobial therapeutics. <i>K. pneumoniae</i> carbapenemase (KPC) and the expanded-spectrum oxacillinase OXA-48 isolates were obtained from patients treated in medical care units in Lisbon, Portugal. The virulence potential of the <i>K. pneumonia</i> clinical isolates was tested using the <i>Galleria mellonella</i> model. For that, <i>G. mellonella</i> larvae were inoculated using patients KPC(+) and OXA-48(+) isolates. Using this in vivo model, the KPC(+) <i>K. pneumoniae</i> isolates showed to be, on average, more virulent than OXA-48(+). Virulence was found attenuated when a low bacterial inoculum (one magnitude lower) was tested. In addition, we also report the use of a synthetic polycationic oligomer (L-OEI-h) as a potential antimicrobial agent to fight infectious diseases caused by MDR bacteria. L-OEI-h has a broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and exerts a significantly bactericidal activity within the first 5-30 min treatment, causing lysis of the cytoplasmic membrane. Importantly, the polycationic oligomer showed low toxicity against in vitro models and no visible cytotoxicity (measured by survival and health index) was noted on the in vivo model <i>(G. mellonella)</i>, thus L-OEI-h is foreseen as a promising polymer therapeutic for the treatment of MDR <i>K. pneumoniae</i> infections.
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