Department of Surgical, Medical, Dental and Morphological Sciences with Interest in Transplant, Oncological and Regenerative Medicine, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41125, Modena, Italy.
Folia Microbiol (Praha). 2024 Oct;69(5):1043-1052. doi: 10.1007/s12223-024-01148-1. Epub 2024 Feb 17.
The virulence factors, antibiotic resistance patterns, and the associated genetic elements have been investigated in Staphylococcus species. A total of 100 strains has been isolated from clinical samples in the Microbiology Laboratory of Hesperia Hospital, Modena, Italy, and identified as Staphylococcus aureus (65), Staphylococcus epidermidis (24), Staphylococcus hominis (3), Staphylococcus saprophyticus (3), and Staphylococcus warneri (5). All the strains were analyzed to determine phenotypic and genotypic characters, notably the virulence factors, the antibiotics susceptibility, and the genetic determinants. The highest percentage of resistance in Staphylococcus spp. was found for erythromycin and benzylpenicillin (87% and 85%, respectively). All S. aureus, two S. epidermidis (8.3%), and one S. saprophyticus (33.3%) strains were resistant to oxacillin. The methicillin resistance gene (mecA) was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification in 65 S. aureus strains and in 3 coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) (8.6%). With regard to the virulence characteristics, all the S. aureus were positive to all virulence tests, except for slime test. Among the CoNS isolates, 19 (79.1%) S. epidermidis and one (33.3%) S. saprophyticus strains resulted positive for the slime test only. The results obtained are useful for a more in-depth understanding of the function and contribution of S. aureus and CoNS antibiotic resistance and virulence factors to staphylococcal infections. In particular, the production of slime is very important for CoNS, a virulence factor frequently found in infections caused by these strains. Further investigations on the genetic relatedness among strains of different sources will be useful for epidemiological and monitoring purposes and will enable us to develop new strategies to counteract the diffusion of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and CoNS strains not only in clinical field, but also in other related environments.
已对葡萄球菌属中的毒力因子、抗生素耐药模式以及相关遗传元件进行了研究。从意大利摩德纳赫赛里亚医院微生物实验室的临床样本中分离出了 100 株葡萄球菌，鉴定为金黄色葡萄球菌（65 株）、表皮葡萄球菌（24 株）、人葡萄球菌（3 株）、腐生葡萄球菌（3 株）和沃氏葡萄球菌（5 株）。所有菌株均进行了表型和基因型特征分析，特别是毒力因子、抗生素敏感性和遗传决定因素。葡萄球菌属中耐药率最高的是红霉素和青霉素（分别为 87%和 85%）。所有金黄色葡萄球菌、两株表皮葡萄球菌（8.3%）和一株腐生葡萄球菌（33.3%）对苯唑西林耐药。通过聚合酶链反应（PCR）扩增检测到 65 株金黄色葡萄球菌和 3 株凝固酶阴性葡萄球菌（CoNS）（8.6%）中存在耐甲氧西林基因（mecA）。就毒力特征而言，除黏液试验外，所有金黄色葡萄球菌均对所有毒力试验呈阳性。在 CoNS 分离株中，19 株（79.1%）表皮葡萄球菌和 1 株（33.3%）腐生葡萄球菌仅黏液试验呈阳性。这些结果有助于更深入地了解金黄色葡萄球菌和凝固酶阴性葡萄球菌的抗生素耐药性和毒力因子在葡萄球菌感染中的作用和贡献。特别是黏液的产生对凝固酶阴性葡萄球菌非常重要，这是这些菌株引起感染的一个重要毒力因子。对不同来源菌株之间遗传相关性的进一步研究将有助于流行病学和监测目的，并使我们能够制定新的策略来对抗耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌（MRSA）和凝固酶阴性葡萄球菌的扩散，不仅在临床领域，而且在其他相关环境中。
