Microarray Technology for the Detection of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes Present in Hospital and Community Acquired Methicillin Resistant S.aureus Strains

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents a real burden for the modern medicine. One of the most frecvently isolated hospital acquired (HA) pathogens wordlwide, is Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Recently not only HA, but also community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections have been reported. A prospective study was performed between February 2009 and October 2010, with the aim to investigate bacterial resistance of CA-MRSA and HA-MRSA. DNA microarray technology has been used for the detection of 4 AMR genes for the studied MRSA strains. A number of 218 HA- S.aureus strains have been isolated, from which 89 (40. 82%) were MRSA. In the community, 1.553 S.aureus strains were isolated, out of which, 356 (22. 92%) were MRSA. From these, a number of 17 HA and 12 CA �MRSA strains have been analyzed by DNA microarray technology. From 100% phenotypically described HA- MRSA, we identified mecA gene in 10 strains (58. 83%). Other 6 strains (35. 29%) have been erm(A) positive and 4 (23. 53%) - tet(O) positive. 83. 33% (10 strains) from the CA strains had mecA gene, only one (8. 33%) was erm(A) positive and 4 (33. 33%) were erm(C) positive. DNA microarray is a method allowing the concomitant scan of multiple genes and can be done within a few hours. That type of rapid and reliable methods for antimicrobial sensitivity tests are important to start an appropriate therapy.