Circulating clones and antibiotic resistance phenotypes of the S. Aureus strains in the Romanian hospitals

Background: Panton–Valentine leukocidin (PVL)and enterotoxins (SEs) have been involved in the pathogenesis of staphylococcal infections. The expression of most virulence factors in S. aureus is controlled by the accessory gene regulator (agr). S. aureus (SA) strains can be divided into 4 major agr groups (I – IV). The genes encoding the enterotoxins are placed on the enterotoxin gene cluster (egc). Few data are about the enterotoxin gene profiles of the S. aureus strains in different geographical areas. Methods & Materials: The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence of the PVL, SEM & SEG genes, of the agr groups in the SAisolates from various hospitals and to investigate a possible relationship between the agr groups and the occurrence of the enterotoxin genes. In order to observe the significance of the presence of the genes in these strains the resistance pattern to antibiotics and the resistance phenotypes were determined. Strains identification and the resistance profiles to antibiotics were performed by standard and automated methods (Vitek2Compact). The genes content of the clinical isolates were detected by PCR. Results: The most abundant gene was the agr gene, present in 48,9% isolates, followed by the SEM&SEG (44,68%) and the PVL (19.1%) genes; 4 agr groups (I – IV) were detected in S. aureus isolates: the agr group III was the most predominant (27,7%) followed by the group I (10,6%) and the group agr II (6,4%). The group agr IV was less common (2,1%). All the arg positive strains are MRSA strains. The SEG gene was the least frequent SE gene in S. aureus. SA tested strains which own the agr, the SEM and the SEG genes, showed a high resistance to AB. The resistance phenotype was not influenced by the group of the agr gene (I or III) or by the association of the agr gene with the SEM and the SEG genes. Conclusion: We draw attention upon the circulation in our geographic area of different clones carrying the agr genes alone or associated with the SEM, SEG and PVL genes, that originate from Europe and other parts of the world.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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