Association Between Uropathogenic Virulence Genes and Severity of Infection and Resistance to Antibiotics.

PURPOSE

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most frequent bacterial infection. Some uropathogenic (UPEC) genes have been associated with disease severity and antibiotic resistance. The aim was to determine the association of nine UPEC virulence genes with UTI severity and antibiotic resistance of strains collected from adults with community-acquired UTI.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A case-control study (1:3) (38 urosepsis/pyelonephritis and 114 cystitis/urethritis) was conducted. The , and (the last five are siderophore genes) virulence genes were determined by PCR. The information of antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the strains was collected from medical records. This pattern was determined using an automated system for antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Multidrug-resistant (MDR) was defined as resistance to three or more antibiotic families.

RESULTS

was the most frequently detected virulence gene (94.7%), and was the least frequently detected (9.2%); 55.3% (83/150) of the strains were MDR. The evaluated genes were not associated with UTI severity. Associations were found between the presence of and carbapenem resistance (Odds ratio [OR] = 7.58, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.50-35.42), and fluoroquinolone resistance (OR = 2.35, 95% CI, 1.15-4.84, and (OR = 2.8, 95% CI, 1.20-6.48) and (OR = 2.95, 95% CI, 1.33-6.69) with penicillin resistance. In addition, was the only gene associated with MDR (OR = 2.09, 95% CI,1.03-4.26).

CONCLUSION

There was no association among virulence genes and UTI severity. Three of the five iron uptake genes were associated with resistance to at least one antibiotic family. Regarding the other four non-siderophore genes, only was associated with antibiotic resistance to carbapenems. It is essential to continue studying bacterial genetic characteristics that cause the generation of pathogenic and multidrug-resistant phenotypes of UPEC strains.