Identity of Carrying Plasmids in Sequential ESBL- Isolates from Patients with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections.

Plasmid-mediated multidrug resistance in is becoming increasingly prevalent. Considering this global threat to human health, it is important to understand how plasmid-mediated resistance spreads. From a cohort of 123 patients with recurrent urinary tract infections (RUTI) due to extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing (ESBL ), only five events with a change of ESBL strain between RUTI episodes were identified. Their encoding plasmids were compared within each pair of isolates using optical DNA mapping (ODM) and PCR-based replicon typing. Despite similar genes and replicon types, ODM detected only one case with identical plasmids in the sequential ESBL strains, indicating that plasmid transfer could have occurred. For comparison, plasmids from seven patients with the same ESBL strain reoccurring in both episodes were analyzed. These plasmids (encoding , , and ) were unaltered for up to six months between recurrent infections. Thus, transmission of plasmids appears to be a rare event during the course of RUTI. Despite the limited number ( = 23) of plasmids investigated, similar - plasmids in unrelated isolates from different patients were detected, suggesting that some successful plasmids could be associated with specific strains, or are more easily transmitted.