Exploring the virulence potential of immune evasion cluster genes in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from cancer patients

Abstract

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is accountable for a plethora of infections, ranging from minor cutaneous manifestations to grave metastatic conditions. The dissemination of MRSA among cancer patients poses a substantial public health hazard on a global scale. This study explores the association between MRSA and bacteriophage-encoded immune evasion cluster (IEC) genes. This investigation employed a total of 168 pathogenic MRSA collected from 38 cancer and 130 non-cancer patients. A cefoxitin disc diffusion method followed by PCR analysis was used to identify the mecA gene. In this study, we employed singleplex and multiplexed PCR techniques to detect specific IEC genes. No association (p = 0.98) was observed between the sex and age of patients and MRSA isolates. However, MRSA isolates demonstrated a notable association (p = 0.01) with pus samples in non-cancer patients and skin swabs in cancer patients. The resistance profiles of MRSA strains from cancer and non-cancer patients did not show significant differences (p > 0.05). Notably, the sea gene was found to be more prevalent in MRSA isolates from cancer patients, displaying a significant association (p = 0.03). Additionally, this study identified two novel and distinct combinations of IEC types, namely V1 (sea, chp, scn) and V2 (sea, scn). Cancer patients had higher multidrug resistance and toxin gene abundance than non-cancer patients. The identification of two novel IEC patterns underscores the urgent need to control MRSA dissemination in hospitals and monitor emerging clones.