Antimicrobial Resistance, Virulence Factor-Encoding Genes, and Biofilm-Forming Ability of Community-Associated Uropathogenic in Western Saudi Arabia.

To explore the prevalence of multidrug-resistant community-associated uropathogenic (UPEC) and their virulence factors in Western Saudi Arabia. A total of 1,000 urine samples were examined for the presence of by selective plating on MacConkey, CLED, and sheep blood agar. Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns were determined using Vitek 2 Compact (MIC) and the disc diffusion method with Mueller-Hinton agar. Genes encoding virulence factors (, , , , , and ) were detected by PCR. The overall prevalence of UTI-associated was low, and a higher prevalence was detected in samples of female origin. Many of the isolates exhibited resistance to norfloxacin, and 60% of the isolates showed resistance to ampicillin. No resistance to imipenem, meropenem, or ertapenem was detected. In general, half of the isolates showed multiple resistance patterns. UPEC exhibited a weak ability to form biofilms, where no correlation was observed between multidrug resistance and biofilm-forming ability. All uropathogenic isolates carried the , , , and genes, whereas the low number of the isolates harbored the and genes. The diversity of virulence factors harbored by community-associated UPEC may render them more virulent and further explain the recurrence/relapse cases among community-associated UITs. To the best of our knowledge, this study constitutes the first exploration of virulence, biofilm-forming ability, and its association with multidrug resistance among UPEC isolates in Saudi Arabia. Further investigations are needed to elucidate the epidemiology of community-associated UPEC in Saudi Arabia.