Virulence genes and antibiotic resistance profile of pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates in Northwest of Iran

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is one of the common pathogen that causes serious infections in hospitalized patients throughout the world. It has been reported that the clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa are difficult to treat because of their virulence factors and antibiotics resistances. The aim of present study was to determine whether a correlation exists between the prevalence of virulence factors including lasB, lasA, PopB, toxA and antibiotic resistance in P. aeruginosa isolated from different wards of hospitalized patients in Northwest of Iran. In this study, 150 isolates of P. aeruginosa were collected from the wound, UTI, LRT, sputum, burn and blood stream infections. The prevalence of toxA, lasA, lasB and PopB genes was determined by PCR. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed using the kirby-bauer method. Prevalence of the isolates encoding exotoxin A was 87.33 %, lasA was 30 %, lsaB was 46.66 % and PopB was 28.66%. Prevalence of lasB gene was significantly higher in isolates from blood and respiratory tract infection in comparing with isolates from wound infections. High resistance levels to Gatifloxacin (81.33 %), Piperacillin (71.33 %), gentamicin (69.33%) and Ciprofloxacin (64%) were observed. Colistin and Polymyxin B were the most effective antibiotics. findings of the present study showed type II secretion toxin, toxA, lasA and lasB were predominant in P. aeruginosa infections from our region. Prevalence of the PopB gene was significantly lower than other previous studies. The high antibiotic resistances against antimicrobial agents were observed except for colistin and Polymyxin B which shows priority needs for developing antibiotic stewardship in our regional hospitals.