Akpaka Patrick Eberechi, Kissoon Shivnarine, Jayaratne Padman, Wilson Clyde, Golding George R, Nicholson Alison M, Lewis Delores B, Hermelijn Sandra M, Wilson-Pearson Alexis, Smith Ashley
The University of the West Indies, Paraclinical Sciences, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago.
McMaster University, Department of Pathological Sciences, Hamilton, Canada.
PLoS One. 2017 Oct 11;12(10):e0185920. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185920. eCollection 2017.
Emergence of vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) that first appeared on the stage about three decades ago is now a major concern worldwide as it has globally reached every continent. Our aim was to simply undertake a multinational study to delineate the resistance and virulence genes of clinical isolates of VRE isolates from the Caribbean. We employed both conventional (standard microbiological methods including use of E-test strips, chromogenic agar) and molecular methods (polymerase chain reactions-PCR, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis-PFGE and multilocus sequence typing-MLST) to analyze and characterize 245 Enterococci species and 77 VRE isolates from twelve hospitals from eight countries in the Caribbean. The PCR confirmed and demonstrated the resistance and virulence genes (vanA and esp) among all confirmed VRE isolates. The PFGE delineated clonally related isolates from patients from the same country and other countries in the region. The main sequence types of the VRE isolates from the region included STs 412, 750, 203, 736 and 18, all from the common ancestor for clonal complex 17 (CC17). Despite this common ancestor and association of outbreaks of this lineage clones, there has been no reports of outbreaks of infection by VRE in several hospitals in the Caribbean.
大约三十年前首次出现的耐万古霉素肠球菌（VRE），如今已遍布全球各大洲，成为全球主要关注的问题。我们的目的是开展一项跨国研究，以确定加勒比地区临床分离的VRE菌株的耐药性和毒力基因。我们采用了传统方法（包括使用E-test试纸条、显色琼脂的标准微生物学方法）和分子方法（聚合酶链反应-PCR、脉冲场凝胶电泳-PFGE和多位点序列分型-MLST），对来自加勒比地区八个国家十二家医院的245株肠球菌和77株VRE分离株进行分析和鉴定。PCR证实并展示了所有确诊的VRE分离株中的耐药性和毒力基因（vanA和esp）。PFGE区分了来自同一国家和该地区其他国家患者的克隆相关分离株。该地区VRE分离株的主要序列类型包括ST412、750、203、736和18，均来自克隆复合体17（CC17）的共同祖先。尽管有这个共同祖先以及该谱系克隆的暴发关联，但加勒比地区几家医院尚无VRE感染暴发的报告。
