ISSN 2756-3294
African Journal of Botany ISSN: 3519-3824 Vol. 8 (4), pp. 001-008, April, 2020. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Increasing prevalence of high-level gentamicin resistant enterococci: An emerging clinical problem
Mounir M. Salem-Bekhit1*, Ihab Mohamed Ibrahim Moussa2, Muharram M. M.3 Ahmed Mahmoud Elsherbini4 and Salim AlRejaie5
1Department of Pharmaceutics, Kayyali Chair for Pharmaceutical Industries, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2457, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
2Center of Excellence in Biotechnology Research, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
3Faculty of Pharmacy, Prince Salman University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
4Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences. Al-Gad International College for Medical Sciences. Jeddah. Saudi-Arabia.
5Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.
Accepted 15 November, 2019
Abstract
Enterococci have recently been recognized as a causative organism of intractable infections. This study investigated the species prevalence, antimicrobial resistance and characterization of high-level gentamicin resistant (HLGR) enterococci. A total of 163 enterococci were isolated from various clinical samples collected from hospitalized patients in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Enterococcus faecalis was the most frequent species (58.9%), followed by Enterococcus faecium (26.9%), Enterococcus avium (6.1%), Enterococcus gallinarum (2.5%), Enterococcus durans (1.8%), Enterococcus hirae (1.2%), Enterococcus casseliflavus (1.2%) and Enterococcus cecorum (0.6%). High-level of resistances to gentamicin and streptomycin were detected by the disc diffusion method, in 20.2% of isolates. The prevalence of resistances among β-lactam antibiotics and glycopeptides were very low. All Enterococcus isolates were identified phenotypically by conventional methods and genotypically by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting aminoglycoside modifying enzyme (AMEs) genes including aac(6`)-Ie-aph(2``)-Ia, aph(2``)-Ib, aph(2``)-Ic, aph(2``)-Id, aph(3`)-IIIa and ant(4`)-Ia. The genetic diversity of E. faecalis presenting HLGR was assessed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of chromosomal deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) after SmaI digestion. Most of the high level aminoglycoside resistant isolates contained genes coding for the bifunctional AMEs AAC(6`)-APH(2``), ANT(6`) and APH(3`) but not the ANT(4`). The results demonstrated that the spread of the aac(6`)-Ie-aph(2``)-Ia gene was responsible for HLGR among enterococci isolated in Riyadh hospital.
Key words: Enterococci, resistance, Enterococcus faecalis, high-level gentamicin resistant (HLGR).