Journal
ARCHIVES OF MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 203, Issue 9, Pages 5695-5702Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00203-021-02558-2
Keywords
Coagulase-negative staphylococci; Virulence genes; mecA gene; Type V SCCmec elements; Enterotoxins
Categories
Funding
- Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India [BT/IN/indo-UK/AMR/06/BRS/2018-19]
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This study revealed high levels of antibiotic resistance among staphylococci, with all isolates resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics and a significant proportion resistant to non-beta-lactam antibiotics. Multiple drug resistance was observed in over half of the isolates, with virulence factors predominantly found in S. haemolyticus. The study also raised concerns about the potential dissemination of resistant genes to other staphylococci species.
This study reports the distribution of enterotoxigenic determinants among staphylococci and the susceptibility of staphylococci to various classes of antibiotics. We observed all the isolates as resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics and a few as resistant to non-beta-lactam antibiotics such as clindamycin (47.4%), erythromycin (44.7%), gentamicin (23.7%), norfloxacin (34.2%), tetracycline (26.3%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (15.8%) etc. The resistance of S. sciuri (n = 1) and S. haemolyticus (n = 1) to rifampicin and intermediate resistance of S. gallinarum (n = 2) to teicoplanin, a high-end antibiotic, are also observed in this study. The multidrug-resistance (>= 3 classes of antibiotics) was recorded in 23 (60.5%) isolates. The virulomes such as sea, seb, seg and sei were identified predominantly in S. haemolyticus. Surprisingly, certain isolates which were phenotypically confirmed as biofilm-producers by Congo red agar (CRA) test did not harbor biofilm-associated loci. This implies the protein-mediated mechanism of biofilm formation as an alternative to polysaccharide intercellular adhesin (PIA) in staphylococci. However, icaAD locus which encodes PIA was identified in 10 (26.3%) isolates and the eno locus, encoding elastin-binding protein which can accelerate the biofilm production, is identified in all the isolates. The possession of type V SCCmec elements by the S. haemolyticus (15.8%) raised the concern about the rapid dissemination of mecA gene to other species of staphylococci including the virulent S. aureus. In short, this study acknowledges the toxigenicity of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS). Through this study, surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and transference of virulomes in staphylococci is warranted.
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