2.1. Sample collection, identification, and susceptibility to antibiotics

Clinical samples were collected from the Al-Makassed Hospital in Lebanon and were stored as part of routine clinical care 16S rRNA gene sequencing and BLAST were used to identify the isolates [14]. The disk diffusion on Mueller-Hinton agar was used to determine the susceptibility profiles of the isolates against aztreonam, norfloxacin, tobramycin, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, amikacin, gentamicin, tetracycline, and ciprofloxacin. Susceptibility to ertapenem, imipenem, and meropenem was determined by the E-test methodology (BioMérieux, France). Results were interpreted according to the CLSI guidelines (CLSI, 2023) [15]. Isolates undertaken in this study were three E. coli (designated as EC20, 21, and 22; Accession Numbers: NZ_JAAJRZ000000000.1 (EC20), NZ_JAAJSD000000000.1 (EC21), NZ_JAAJRY000000000.1 (EC22) and one K. pneumoniae (Accession Number: {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"JBBJJS000000000.1","term_id":"2710387525","term_text":"JBBJJS000000000.1"}}JBBJJS000000000.1).