1Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Ardabil, Iran.
2Biotechnology Research Center, Pharmaceutical Technology Institute, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Acta Microbiol Immunol Hung. 2023 May 25;70(2):161-166. doi: 10.1556/030.2023.02029. Print 2023 Jun 16.
Efflux pumps play an important role in the emergence of antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains. The present study aimed to assess the expression of the MexAB-OprM, MexCD-OprJ, MexEF-OprN, and MexXY-OprM efflux pumps in carbapenem-resistant and multidrug-resistant (MDR) P. aeruginosa strains isolated from clinical specimens between June 2019 and January 2022 in Ardabil city. The presence of efflux pump-encoding genes, i.e. mexA, mexC, mexE, and mexY, was assessed using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique in 48 carbapenem-resistant and MDR P. aeruginosa strains. Real-time reverse transcription PCR was employed to evaluate the expression levels of mexA, mexC, mexE, and mexY genes. All 48 carbapenem-resistant and MDR P. aeruginosa strains harbored efflux pump-encoding genes including mexA, mexC, mexE, and mexY according to the PCR results. Overexpression of the MexAB-OprM, MexCD-OprJ, MexEF-OprN, and MexXY-OprM efflux pumps was detected in 75% (n = 36), 83.3% (n = 40), 10.4% (n = 5) and 41.6% (n = 20) of the clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa, respectively. This study revealed that the presence and overexpression of efflux pumps are associated with the emergence of carbapenem-resistant and MDR P. aeruginosa strains. Therefore, research on efflux pump inhibitors of P. aeruginosa will be a worthwhile endeavor to increase the clinical efficiency of available antibiotics and prevent ensuing treatment failure.
外排泵在抗生素耐药铜绿假单胞菌菌株的出现中起着重要作用。本研究旨在评估 2019 年 6 月至 2022 年 1 月期间从阿尔达比勒市临床标本中分离的碳青霉烯类耐药和多药耐药（MDR）铜绿假单胞菌菌株中 MexAB-OprM、MexCD-OprJ、MexEF-OprN 和 MexXY-OprM 外排泵的表达。使用聚合酶链反应（PCR）技术评估 48 株碳青霉烯类耐药和 MDR 铜绿假单胞菌菌株中编码外排泵的 mexA、mexC、mexE 和 mexY 基因的存在。采用实时逆转录 PCR 评估 mexA、mexC、mexE 和 mexY 基因的表达水平。根据 PCR 结果，所有 48 株碳青霉烯类耐药和 MDR 铜绿假单胞菌菌株均携带编码外排泵的基因，包括 mexA、mexC、mexE 和 mexY。MexAB-OprM、MexCD-OprJ、MexEF-OprN 和 MexXY-OprM 外排泵的过度表达在 75%（n=36）、83.3%（n=40）、10.4%（n=5）和 41.6%（n=20）的铜绿假单胞菌临床分离株中分别检测到。本研究表明，外排泵的存在和过度表达与碳青霉烯类耐药和 MDR 铜绿假单胞菌菌株的出现有关。因此，研究铜绿假单胞菌外排泵抑制剂将是提高现有抗生素临床疗效和防止治疗失败的一项有价值的工作。
