Molecular analysis of accessory gene regulator functionality and virulence genes in Staphylococcus aureus derived from pediatric wound infections

Donya Taghizadeh Maleki, Zohreh Ghalavand, Maisem Laabei, Bahram Nikmanesh, Hamidreza Houri, Mansoor Kodori, Ali Hashemi, Hiva Kadkhoda, Gita Eslami*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen causing infections with high morbidity and mortality in both healthcare and community settings. The accessory gene regulator (Agr) is a key genetic element controlling the expression of numerous virulence factors in S. aureus. The significance of a functional Agr system in clinical S. aureus isolates derived from pediatric wound infections is still unclear. Therefore, the present study was conducted to identify virulence genes and determine Agr functionality from this cohort of patients. A total of 48 S. aureus wound isolates were collected from patients referred to Tehran Children's Medical Center Hospital from April 2017 to April 2018. In addition, in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolates was assessed using the disk diffusion and E-test methods. Conventional PCR was performed for the detection of toxins (tsst-1, hla, hlb, hld, eta, etb, etd, edin-A, edin-B, edin-C) and Agr typing (agrI, agrII, agrIII, agrIV). Agr functionality was assessed by quantitative reverse transcriptase real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). All S. aureus isolates were found to be susceptible to linezolid and vancomycin. The most frequently detected toxin gene was eta (100%), and the most prevalent Agr type was agrIII (56.3%). Importantly, qRT-PCR revealed that Agr was functional in 28 (58%) of wound isolates. Consequently, our data suggests that a functional Agr system may not be required for the development of S. aureus wound infections.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)255-260
Number of pages6
JournalInfection, Genetics and Evolution
Volume73
Early online date16 May 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology
  • Child
  • Drug Resistance, Bacterial
  • Humans
  • Microbial Sensitivity Tests
  • Staphylococcus aureus/drug effects
  • Virulence
  • Wound Infection/microbiology

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