Molecular and Cellular Microbiology (MCM) | Microbial Genetics, Physiology and Metabolism
Microbiol. Biotechnol. Lett. 2021; 49(2): 239-248
https://doi.org/10.48022/mbl.2008.08012
Rania Abozahra1*, Sarah M. Abdelhamid1, Amel G. Elsheredy2, Kawther E. Abdulwahab1, and Kholoud Baraka1
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Damanhour University, Damanhour, Egypt 2Department of Microbiology, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
Correspondence to :
Rania Abozahra, rania_abozahra@yahoo.com
The emergence of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii has partly increased treatment failure and patient mortality. Class D β-lactamases is an important mechanism of resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics in this species. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the presence oxacillinase gene and genetic fingerprints of A. baumannii isolates from the intensive care unit of an Egyptian tertiary care hospital. One hundred and twenty A. baumannii clinical isolates were collected. Multiplex PCR was performed to detect genes encoding oxacillinases (OXA-23, OXA-24, OXA-51, OXA-58 and OXA-143). Molecular typing of all collected isolates was performed using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR assay. Out of 120 examined isolates, 92, 88 and 84% were resistant to ertapenem, imipenem and meropenem, respectively. The species-specific, commonly present OXA-51 gene was found in all isolates while OXA-23 showed a high prevalence of 88% of isolates. OXA-24 and OXA-143 genes were detected in 3% and 1% of isolates, respectively. No OXA-58 gene was detected. Five clusters consisting of 19 genotypes were detected using RAPDPCR. Genotype A was the most prevalent, it was observed in 62% of the isolates followed by genotype B (12%). These results revealed that genotypes A and B are common in the hospital. Results also demonstrate that RAPD-PCR is a rapid and reliable method for studying the clonal similarity among A. baumannii isolated from different clinical specimens.
Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem resistance, oxacillinase genes, genotyping
Emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR)
Although, most of
Some mechanisms result in β-lactam resistance in
They are categorized into six main subclasses, the species- specific, commonly present chromosomal carbapenemase gene to this species
This requires the assessment of isolates on the subspecies level by epidemiological typing methods like random amplification of polymorphic DNA-PCR (RAPD-PCR) technique that has a specific impact in the epidemiological tracing due to the nature of RAPD profiling that produces fingerprints as well as it can be used to detect polymorphisms in a variety of organisms [12].
In RAPD-PCR, random primer sequences can be used in organisms in which a specific genome sequence is unknown [13]. Random parts of the genome of the organism are amplified, which are expected to be identical amongst related species, and similar banding patterns are to be produced in gel electrophoresis [14].
In this study, we aimed to characterize
One hundred and twenty
Isolates were cultured for 18−24 h at 37℃ on Mac- Conkey’s agar plates (Himedia, India). Non- lactose fermenting colonies were further examined. All isolates were identified as
Table 1 . Primers used for detection of OXA genes in this study.
Target gene | Primer | Sequence | Expected amplicon size (bp) | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
OXA-23 F | 5’-GATCGGATTGGAGAACCAGA-3’ | 501 | [17], [56] | |
OXA-23 R | 5’-ATTTCTGACCGCATTTCCAT-3’ | |||
OXA-24 F | 5’-GGTTAGTTGGCCCCCTTAAA-3’ | 246 | [17], [56] | |
OXA-24 R | 5’-AGTTGAGCGAAAAGGGGATT-3’ | |||
OXA-51 F | 5’-TAATGCTTTGATCGGCCTTG-3’ | 353 | [17], [56] | |
OXA-51 R | 5’-TGGATTGCACTTCATCTTGG-3’ | |||
OXA-58 F | 5’-AAGTATTGGGGCTTGTGCTG-3’ | 599 | [17], [56] | |
OXA-58 R | 5’-CCCCTCTGCGCTCTACATAC-3’ | |||
OXA-143 F | 5’-TGGCACTTTCAGCAGTTCCT-3’ | 149 | [56] | |
OXA-143 R | 5’-TAATCTTGAGGGGGCCAACC-3’ |
The susceptibility testing of
Isolates were considered as MDR when they were found to be resistant to at least three classes of the above mentioned antimicrobial agents [19]. Antibiotic discs were all purchased from (Himedia) and stored in the refrigirator (2−8℃).
Genomic DNA from
The presence of
The thermal cycling program was made according to Woodford
PCR products were separated on 1.5% agarose gels (Bioline) and observed using an image analysis system, high-performance UV trans-illuminator (Biometra, Germany).
All our 120 isolates were analyzed by RAPD-PCR genotyping using AP2, AP5 and AP6 primers (Table 2). RAPD was performed by the method described previously [21]. Amplification was made in a final volume of 10 μl of the amplification mixture containing 5 μl MyTaq Hot start DNA polymerase (Bioline), 1 μl of the extracted DNA sample, 3 μl water and 1 μl (10 pmol) of a single primer (Table 2) of arbitrary nucleotide sequence following manufacturer's instructions.
Table 2 . RAPD primers used in this study.
RAPD primer | Description | Sequence | Reference |
---|---|---|---|
AP2 | Single primer of arbitrary nucleotide sequence (decamer) | 5’-GTTTCGCTCC-3’ | [57], [54] |
AP5 | Single primer of arbitrary nucleotide sequence (decamer) | 5’-AACGCGCAAC-3’ | [57], [12] |
AP6 | Single primer of arbitrary nucleotide sequence (decamer) | 5’-CCCGTCAGCA-3’ | [57], [11] |
Amplifications were performed in a thermal cycler as described previously [21] with some modifications, using the following program: initial denaturation 95℃ for 1 min, 40 cycles of denaturation at 95℃ for 15 s, annealing at 30℃ for 15 s, extension at 72℃ for 30 s followed by a final extension 72℃ for 5 min. The PCR products were resolved using 1.5% agarose gel. A 100 bp DNA ladder H3 RTU (GeneDirex, USA) was used. RAPD profiles were used to measure genetic relationships among
Dendrogram generation and degrees of homology were determined by Dice comparisons, and clustering correlation coefficients were calculated by the UPGMA (unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages). Clustering was performed at 95% similarity cutoff as shown in Fig. 3.
During the period of the study, 120 isolates were identified as
Prevalence of carbapenem resistance pattern indicated that 92, 88 and 84% were resistant to ertapenem, imipenem and meropenem, respectively. The resistance to other β-lactam antibiotics was distributed as follows: piperacillin/tazobactam (92%), Cefotaxime (92%), Cefoperazone (92%) Ceftriaxone (92%), Cefepime (92%), Ceftazidime (92%), while resistance to other classes of antibiotics was distributed as follows: Amikacin (88%), Gentamycin (85%), Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (68%), Ciprofloxacin (90%) and Tetracycline (54%).
PCR for oxacillinase-encoding genes revealed that 100% of
Table 3 . Prevalence of OXA resistant genes among different genotypes.
OXA-genes | Number of isolates carrying | Total number of isolates | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Genotypes | OXA-23 (%) | OXA-24 (%) | OXA-143 (%) | |
A | 73 (99%) | - | - | 74 |
B | 12 (86%) | 2 (14%) | - | 14 |
C | 8 (100%) | - | - | 8 |
D | 4 (100%) | - | - | 4 |
E | 2 (100%) | - | - | 2 |
F | 1 (100%) | - | - | 1 |
G | 1 (100%) | - | - | 1 |
H | 1 (100%) | - | - | 1 |
I | 1 (100%) | - | - | 1 |
J | - | 1 (100%) | 1 (100%) | 1 |
K | - | 1 (100%) | - | 1 |
L | 1 (100%) | - | - | 1 |
M | 1 (100%) | - | - | 1 |
N | - | - | - | 2 |
O | - | - | - | 3 |
P | - | - | - | 2 |
Q | - | - | - | 1 |
R | - | - | - | 1 |
S | - | - | - | 1 |
% = number of positive
All 120 isolates were analyzed by RAPD-PCR genotyping using AP2, AP5 and AP6 primers. Primers AP2 and AP6 gave reproducible patterns but often only a small number of bands were generated with many of the strains (data not presented). The decamer AP5 was chosen for this study because it produced the highest number of bands with our tested
It was found that obtained fingerprints belong to 19 genomic types (Fig. 4), denoted from A to S. Genotypes A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L and M belong to carbapenem resistant
Five main clusters were obtained from the analysis of the dendrogram as shown in Fig. 3, where cluster 1 contained genotypes A, C, E, F, G, H, I and L, these 8 genotypes showed 95% similarity between them. Cluster 2 contained genotypes J and S and cluster 3 contained genotypes D and M. Cluster 4 contained genotypes B, K, O and Q all these clusters showed 95% similarity between different genotypes. However, cluster 5 is considered an outgroup as there is no similarity with other clusters. As shown from Fig. 3 each genotype belongs only to one cluster. Some clonally related groups (A and B) were observed in most of the isolate sources which represent the dissemination of these clones in the hospitals (Fig. 5).
The resistance of our
Carbapenemase production is known to be one of the main resistance mechanisms of
In this study, 3% of the isolates carried
Moving on to
In conclusion,
On the basis of RAPD profiles in agarose gels in this study, the number of bands ranged from 1 to 5 ranging in size from 300–1500 bp (Fig. 2). It indicated a high genetic diversity (A-S) among
Moreover, in a study conducted in China in which 47 sensitive strains and 80 MDR strains were isolated, seventeen genotypes (A−Q) were obtained. Genotype E was the predominant type in MDR strains (46/80) mainly derived from the ICU. The carriage rates of resistant genes revealed that
Similar to our study, RAPD genotyping carried out in Iran and Bulgaria revealed that most of the isolates belong to two main clones [28, 29]. Despite all these studies, more comprehensive studies are needed to prevent hospital-acquired infections via determining the sources of bacteria.
Having several clusters with predominance of
RAPD-PCR provided us with a powerful tool for identifying and epidemiologically typing our strains. Studying the epidemiology of MDR
The authors have no financial conflicts of interest to declare.
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