Clinical test to detect mecA and antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus, based on novel biotechnological methods
Background and Objective: Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the most common organisms isolated from clinical samples, and has been associated with morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility patterns among MRSA and methicillin sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) isolates collected from four hospitals in Iran. Material and Methods: A total of 183 isolates of S. aureus were collected from various clinical specimens of four hospitals in Iran. The isolates were identified by using the conventional biochemical tests. Three methods oxacillin agar disk diffusion, oxacillin agar screening, and PCR were applied to determine susceptibility to oxacillin. The conventional disk agar diffusion test was used to evaluate the antibiotic sensitivity of our isolates against 15 antibiotics, according to the guidelines of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) Results: Of 183 isolates, 77 isolates (42.1% were found to be MRSA, by the PCR method. The highest antibiotic resistance was found to be against penicillin, co trimoxazole, erythromycin, and tetracycline respectively. All isolates were susceptible to vancomycin, according to the results of disk agar diffusion. Among other antibiotics, teicoplanin (84% and fusidic acid (80.5% were more active against MRSA isolates. For the different methods evaluated, the sensitivities and specificities were as follows: for disk agar diffusion (84.9% and 95.9% and for agar screening test with oxacillin concentrations of 0.6 mg/ml (70.8% and 97.4% 4 mg/ml (96.1%and 97.2% and 6 mg/ml (96% and 96.3% respectively. Conclusion: The results of our study showed that 47% of S. aureus isolates were MRSA. Overall, in this research study, resistance to all test antimicrobial agents in MRSA isolates were higher than that of MSSA isolates. Our results also revealed that 85% of mecA positive isolates and 15% of mecA negative isolates were resistant to methicillin; while 96% of mecA negative isolates were sensitive to methicillin. Meanwhile 4% of mecA positive isolates were also sensitive to methicillin.
Artificial cells, nanomedicine, and biotechnology