Infection and Drug Resistance (Dec 2020)

Phenotypic and Molecular Characteristics of Community-Associated Staphylococcus aureus Infection in Neonates

  • Dong Q,
  • Liu Y,
  • Li W,
  • Chen M,
  • Li W,
  • Wang X,
  • Fu J,
  • Ye X

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 13
pp. 4589 – 4600

Abstract

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Qian Dong,1 Yanling Liu,1 Wenhui Li,1 Minqi Chen,1 Wenyu Li,1 Xulin Wang,1 Jinjian Fu,2 Xiaohua Ye1 1School of Public Health, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Prevention and Health Care, Liuzhou Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Liuzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jinjian Fu; Xiaohua Ye Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Staphylococcus aureus is an important human pathogen causing a wide variety of diseases ranging from mild skin infections to life-threatening bacteremia. This study aimed to provide insight into the phenotype–genotype characteristics of S. aureus isolated from neonates.Methods: A hospital-based retrospective study was conducted to recruit neonatal patients with community-associated S. aureus infection. All 92 S. aureus clinical isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility, resistance genes, virulence genes, and multilocus sequence typing.Results: A total of 92 S. aureus isolates were included in this study, including 29 (31.5%) MRSA isolates. Most S. aureus isolates were susceptible to gentamicin, and most methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates were susceptible to vancomycin and linezolid. The predominant S. aureus genotypes were CC188 (ST188), CC59 (ST338), CC5 (ST5), CC88 (ST8), and CC6 (ST6), with CC59 (ST338) as the most prevalent MRSA. We observed a significantly corresponding relationship between clonal complexes and resistance patterns (such as CC45/CC59/CC121/CC630 associated with multidrug resistance) or the number of virulence genes (such as CC1/CC5/CC45/CC59/CC88 associated with harboring 5– 7 virulence genes, and CC22/CC25/CC121 associated with carrying 8– 13 genes). Moreover, both univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that invasive S. aureus isolates were significantly associated with resistance to several classes of antibiotics and carrying specific virulence factors.Conclusion: Our findings provide insight into phenotype–genotype characteristics for S. aureus isolates so as to provide new ideas for differentiating potential genetic backgrounds and monitoring new epidemiologic trends.Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus, antimicrobial susceptibility, molecular characterization, virulence genes

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