Study of the genetic traits associated with antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus isolated from skin wards of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) isolated from skin wards of the hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, its resistance against various commonly and commercially available antibiotics, as well as different genetic traits of resistance and their correlations with the phenotypic visible resistance. MethodsIn the present study a simple PCR technique were used to investigate the genetic traits of resistance in S. aureus isolated from skin wards of two major hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A total of 100 samples were collected from both the male and female, of which 50 were from patient's site of infection and 50 from ward environment. ResultsThese results demonstrated that the total prevalence of S. aureus both in ward as well as in patients was 48%. The S. aureus prevalence was the highest in female patients (50%) followed by ward environment (29%) and then male patients (21%). The antibiotic sensitivity tests revealed that the highest (91.6% isolates) sensitivity was shown to imipenem. However, the highest resistance was found to be against penicillin (100% isolates) followed by cefotaxime (75% isolates). In addition, only 29% of the isolates were found to be resistant to methicillin. PCR technique based on the previously designed primers targeting different genetic traits of resistance revealed that 13 out of the 14 isolates resistant to methicillin were positive for mecA gene. blaZ Genetic traits were found in all isolates resistant to penicillin. The multi-drug resistance traits, vgaA and vgaB each was detected only in 12.5% of S. aureus isolates. The phenotypic character of antibiotic resistance is highly correlated to different genetic traits of resistance. ConclusionsBased on our findings, it is concluded that antibiotic resistance in S. aureus strains is increasing day by day due to self-medications and medication by non-registered medical practitioners. Therefore, for quick and fast detection, we propose next-generation sequencing be utilized to screen for antibiotic resistance.