Prevalence of virulence genes in Staphylococcus saprophyticus isolated from women with urinary tract infections in Lagos State

Abstract

Virulence factors and its expression is very important in the pathology of coagulase negative staphylococcal urinary tract infections. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of virulence genes in Staphylococcus saprophyticus isolated from urine samples of patients diagnosed with urinary tract infections (UTIs) in government hospitals in Lagos State, Nigeria. A total of 88 S. saprophyticus clinical isolates were subjected to multiplex polymerase chain reaction procedure for the amplification of nine virulence genes (sdrl, ssp, uafA, dsdA, capD, aas, rot, sarA and agr). The results of the study showed that 43 (49%) of the 88 isolates tested, carried sarA gene closely followed by 26 (30%), 8 (9%), 6 (7%), 5 (6%), 3 (3%) and 1 (1%) of aas, ssp, dsdA, rot, agr, and capD genes respectively. Gene's uafA and sdrl were not detected in any of the isolates except the reference strain that harboured sdrl gene. The present results showed that S. saprophyticus is an important cause of UTIs among women in this geographical location with the presence of some of these virulence genes that encoded virulence factors of this organism.

Keywords

• Staphylococcus saprophyticus
• Virulence genes
• Urinary tract infections
• Isolates
• Women