Zeitschrift für Infektionskrankheiten und Therapie

Abstrakt

Leclercia adecarboxylata, An Emerging Pathogen: A Narrative Review

Marco Di Gregorio, Giorgio Tiecco, Cosimo Colangelo, Silvia Corbellini, Francesca Caccuri, Arnaldo Caruso, Francesco Castelli and Emanuele Focà*

Leclercia adecarboxylata is a gram negative, motile, facultative-anaerobic, oxidase-negative, mesophilic bacillus belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family. L. adecarboxylata was first described by H. Leclerc in 1962, and previously known as “Enteric group 410” or “Escherichia adecarboxylata”, since Leclercia spp. shares several structural and microbiological properties with the genus Escherichia. Due to those similarities, L. adecarboxylata infections might be more common than what believed so far, since past clinical cases might have been erroneously defined as Escherichia spp. infections. L. adecarboxylata is a member of the normal gut flora in animals, has been isolated from water, food, and other environmental sources, can be found in a variety of specimens and is involved in a wide range of clinical syndromes commonly related to immunocompromised hosts. Although most of Leclercia spp isolates show high susceptibility to antibiotics, some multi-resistant strains have been reported in literature. Here, we narratively review the most original and relevant articles available in literature to provide a state of art to the current knowledge of this emerging pathogen.