Antimicrobial Resistance, Virulence Factor-Encoding Genes, and Biofilm-Forming Ability of Community-Associated Uropathogenic Escherichia coli in Western Saudi Arabia - PubMed
- ️Sat Jan 01 2022
Antimicrobial Resistance, Virulence Factor-Encoding Genes, and Biofilm-Forming Ability of Community-Associated Uropathogenic Escherichia coli in Western Saudi Arabia
Sara H Arafa et al. Pol J Microbiol. 2022.
Abstract
To explore the prevalence of multidrug-resistant community-associated uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) and their virulence factors in Western Saudi Arabia. A total of 1,000 urine samples were examined for the presence of E. coli by selective plating on MacConkey, CLED, and sheep blood agar. Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns were determined using Vitek® 2 Compact (MIC) and the disc diffusion method with Mueller-Hinton agar. Genes encoding virulence factors (kpsMTII, traT, sat, csgA, vat, and iutA) were detected by PCR. The overall prevalence of UTI-associated E. coli was low, and a higher prevalence was detected in samples of female origin. Many of the isolates exhibited resistance to norfloxacin, and 60% of the isolates showed resistance to ampicillin. No resistance to imipenem, meropenem, or ertapenem was detected. In general, half of the isolates showed multiple resistance patterns. UPEC exhibited a weak ability to form biofilms, where no correlation was observed between multidrug resistance and biofilm-forming ability. All uropathogenic E. coli isolates carried the kpsMTII, iutA, traT, and csgA genes, whereas the low number of the isolates harbored the sat and vat genes. The diversity of virulence factors harbored by community-associated UPEC may render them more virulent and further explain the recurrence/relapse cases among community-associated UITs. To the best of our knowledge, this study constitutes the first exploration of virulence, biofilm-forming ability, and its association with multidrug resistance among UPEC isolates in Saudi Arabia. Further investigations are needed to elucidate the epidemiology of community-associated UPEC in Saudi Arabia.
Keywords: Saudi Arabia; Uropathogenic E. coli; antimicrobial resistance; biofilm formation; urinary tract infection; virulence factors.
© 2022 Sara H. Arafa et al., published by Sciendo.
Conflict of interest statement
Conflict of interest
The authors do not report any financial or personal connections with other persons or organizations, which might negatively affect the contents of this publication and/ or claim authorship rights to this publication.
Figures

Agarose gel electrophoresis shows positive results of kpsMTII virulence gene at (270 bp) in UPEC. M– DNA marker, C– negative control

Agarose gel electrophoresis shows positive results of csgA virulence gene at (301 bp) in UPEC. M– DNA marker, C– negative control

Agarose gel electrophoresis shows some positive results of vat virulence gene at (418 bp) in UPEC. M– DNA marker, C– negative control

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