Open AccessAntimicrobial resistance and virulence determinants in coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated mainly from preterm neonates
Author(s) -
Aishah Al-Haqan,
Samar S. Boswihi,
Seema Pathan,
Edet E. Udo
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0236713
Subject(s) - sccmec , microbiology and biotechnology , coagulase , cefoxitin , virulence , staphylococcus epidermidis , biology , cons , staphylococcus haemolyticus , antibiotic resistance , antibiotics , staphylococcus , gene , bacteria , staphylococcus aureus , methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus , genetics , programming language , computer science
Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are the most common isolates from blood culture in neonates resulting in high mortality and morbidity. This study investigated CoNS obtained from blood cultures of neonates for antibiotic resistance and virulence factors, and possible association with inflammatory response (C-reactive protein). A total of 93 CoNS isolates were collected from 76 blood cultures of neonates at the Maternity hospital in Kuwait in a six-month period and investigated for susceptibility to antibiotics, carriage of staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCC mec ), and virulence-associated genes. The 93 CoNS isolates consisted of S . epidermidis (76; 81.7%), S . capitis (12; 12.9%), S . hominis (2; 2.1%), S . warneri (2; 2.1%) and S . haemolyticus (1; 1.0%). Eighty-six (92.4%) of the isolates were resistant to cefoxitin (MR-CoNS) while 49 (52.7%) expressed multi-antibiotic resistance. The methicillin-resistant isolates (MR-CoNS) carried SCC mec III, SCC mec IVa and four combinations of SCC mec types including SCC mec types I+IVa (one S . warneri and 25 S . epidermidis isolates), types I+III (one S . epidermidis isolate), types III+IVa (six S . epidermidis isolates) and types I+III+IVa (one S . epidermidis isolate). The most common virulence-related genes were icaC , seb , arc detected in 69.7%, 60.5%, 40.8% of the isolates respectively. Two isolates were positive for tst1 . No association between C-reactive protein and antibiotic resistance or virulence factors was established. This study revealed that S . epidermidis carrying different SCC mec genetic elements, was the dominant CoNS species isolated from neonatal blood cultures with 90.3% and 36.6% of the isolates positive for genes for biofilm and ACME production respectively.