Abstract
Background Staphylococcus aureus is one of the important pathogens causing nosocomial infection. spa typing allows identification of S. aureus clones in hospital isolates and is useful for epidemiological studies and nosocomial infection control. This study aims to investigate the spa types in Malaysian S. aureus isolates obtained from various clinical specimens.MethodA total of 89 methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) [pus (n = 55), blood (n = 27), respiratory (n = 5), eye (n = 2)] isolates and 109 methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) [pus (n = 79), blood (n = 24), respiratory (n = 3), eye (n = 2) and urine (n = 1)] isolates were subjected to spa typing with sequences analysed using BioNumerics version 7.ResultsThe spa sequence was successfully amplified from 77.8% of the strains (154/198) and 47 known spa types were detected. The distribution of known spa types in MRSA (36.2%, 17/47) was less diverse than in MSSA (70.2%, 33/47). The most predominant spa types were t032 (50%) in MRSA, and t127 (19%) and t091 (16.7%) in MSSA, respectively. spa type t091 in MSSA was significantly associated with skin and soft tissue infections (p = 0.0199).ConclusionThe previously uncommon spa type t032 was detected in the Malaysian MRSA strains, which also corresponded to the most common spa type in Europe and Australia, and has replaced the dominant spa type t037 which was reported in Malaysia in 2010.
Highlights
Staphylococcus aureus is both a commensal bacterium and human pathogen that has potential to cause a wide variety of infections, ranging from bacteraemia, infectiveHow to cite this article Jones SU, Chua KH, Chew CH, Yeo CC, Abdullah FH, Othman N, Kee BP, Puah SM. 2021. spa diversity of methicillin-resistant and -susceptible Staphylococcus aureus in clinical strains from Malaysia: a high prevalence of invasive European spa-type t032
The first emergence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was associated with hospital-acquired infections (HA-MRSA) in the early 1960s, but it has spread to the community and was referred to as community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) (Turner et al, 2019)
Methicillin-resistant S. aureus has been known to evolve from methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) due to the acquisition of mecA gene, which encodes the low-affinity penicillin-binding protein 2a (PBP2a) via horizontal transfer located in the mobile genetic element known as staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec)
Summary
Staphylococcus aureus is both a commensal bacterium and human pathogen that has potential to cause a wide variety of infections, ranging from bacteraemia, infectiveHow to cite this article Jones SU, Chua KH, Chew CH, Yeo CC, Abdullah FH, Othman N, Kee BP, Puah SM. 2021. spa diversity of methicillin-resistant and -susceptible Staphylococcus aureus in clinical strains from Malaysia: a high prevalence of invasive European spa-type t032. Spa diversity of methicillin-resistant and -susceptible Staphylococcus aureus in clinical strains from Malaysia: a high prevalence of invasive European spa-type t032. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus has been known to evolve from methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) due to the acquisition of mecA gene, which encodes the low-affinity penicillin-binding protein 2a (PBP2a) via horizontal transfer located in the mobile genetic element known as staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec). This mechanism allows the bacteria to become resistant to a wide range of β-lactam antibiotics (Kirmusaoglu, 2018; Wu et al, 2019). The previously uncommon spa type t032 was detected in the Malaysian MRSA strains, which corresponded to the most common spa type in Europe and Australia, and has replaced the dominant spa type t037 which was reported in Malaysia in 2010
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
