396499

Antimicrobial susceptibility and distribution of <i>traT</i> and <i>pld</i> virulence genes in hospital-acquired <i>Acinetobacter spp</i> isolated from intensive care units

Article

Last updated: 04 May 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Clinical microbiology

Abstract

Background: Acinetobacter is a critical nosocomial pathogen responsible for various infections. It represents global threat due to high antibiotic resistance, including to last-resort options, and possesses multiple virulence factors that lead to significant morbidity and mortality rates. Objectives: This study aims to investigate the association between different antibiotic susceptibility patterns and the presence of phospholipase D (pld) and serum resistance (traT) virulence genes in Acinetobacter isolated from clinical samples in ICUs. Methods: Clinical specimens of hospital-acquired infections were collected from ICUs at Tanta University Hospitals. Acinetobacter isolates were identified using conventional methods, and their antibiotic susceptibility was assessed through disk diffusion. Colistin susceptibility was tested by broth macrodilution, and virulence genes (pld and traT) were detected using conventional PCR. Results: Out of 135 clinical samples, (20.7%) were identified as Acinetobacter, with 96.4% classified as multi-drug resistant (MDR). The isolates showed high resistance to cefotaxime (100%), piperacillin/tazobactam (92.9%), and ceftazidime (92.9%), while low resistance was noted for tetracycline (28.6%) and colistin (10.7%). All isolates (100%) carried the pld gene, and (82.1%) had the traT gene. Isolates with both virulence genes exhibited significantly higher resistance rates against imipenem (82.6%), ciprofloxacin (87%), and aminoglycosides (73.9%), along with absolute resistance (100%) to cefotaxime and ceftriaxone. MDR levels were notably high in both groups of virulence-associated gene carriage (95.7% for group 1 and 100% for group 2). Conclusions: There is high prevalence of antimicrobial resistance of Acinetobacter isolates among medical ICU patients with a high proportion of virulence-associated genes.

DOI

10.21608/mid.2024.336774.2349

Keywords

Acinetobacter, Hospital-acquired infections, Antimicrobial drug resistance, virulence-associated genes, PCR

Authors

First Name

Farah

Last Name

Saleh

MiddleName

Khaled

Affiliation

Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Egypt

Email

farah.khalid@med.tanta.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Marwa

Last Name

Abd-Elmonsef

MiddleName

M. E.

Affiliation

Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Egypt

Email

marwa.ezzat@med.tanta.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Lobna

Last Name

Abo-Elnasr

MiddleName

Mohamed

Affiliation

Department of Anesthesiology and Surgical Intensive Care, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Egypt

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Sara

Last Name

Samy

MiddleName

Mina

Affiliation

Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Egypt

Email

dr.sms2006@hotmail.com

City

Gharbia, Tanta

Orcid

0000 0001-8082-9246

Volume

6

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

55370

Issue Date

2025-05-01

Receive Date

2024-11-16

Publish Date

2025-05-01

Page Start

785

Page End

797

Print ISSN

2682-4132

Online ISSN

2682-4140

Link

https://mid.journals.ekb.eg/article_396499.html

Detail API

http://journals.ekb.eg?_action=service&article_code=396499

Order

396,499

Type

Original Article

Type Code

1,157

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Microbes and Infectious Diseases

Publication Link

https://mid.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Antimicrobial susceptibility and distribution of <i>traT</i> and <i>pld</i> virulence genes in hospital-acquired <i>Acinetobacter spp</i> isolated from intensive care units

Details

Type

Article

Created At

04 May 2025