Prevalence of fluoroquinolones Resistance and OqxAB effluxpump genes in clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae

Background and Aim : Considering the clinical significance of K. pneumoniae and also thefactors involved in resistance to fluoroquinolones, the aim of this study was to investigate theprevalence of resistance to fluoroquinolones and also to investigate the frequency and expressionlevel of the OqxAB efflux pumpMethods : In a cross-sectional study, one hundred isolates of K. pneumoniae were collected fromclinical samples of hospitalized patients in three major hospitals. The antibiotic susceptibility ofisolates was assessed by the disk diffusion agar method. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration(MIC) of Ciprofloxacin was determined by microbroth dilution. The frequency of genes encodingoqxA and oqxB of efflux pump genes was investigated by PCR and the Real-time PCR analyzedthe expression of the oqxA efflux pump gene.Results : The frequency of K. pneumoniae isolates in ICU of hospitals was higher than in otherwards (۷۴%). High resistance to ciprofloxacin (۸۹%) was detected. The frequency of oqxA andoqxB genes were ۹۵% and ۹۸%, respectively. Multidrug resistance phenotype (MDR) wasobserved in ۶۵% of the strains. The oqxA expression was observed in both Ciprofloxacinsusceptibleand Ciprofloxacin-resistant isolates. There was a significant relationship betweenoqxA expression and resistance to Ciprofloxacin.Conclusion : According to the results of this study, the high prevalence of resistance tociprofloxacin as well as the presence of OqxAB efflux pump genes in most K. pneumoniae strainsin hospitals is a considerable and critical issue.

کلیدواژه ها:

Klebsiella pneumoniae ، Ciprofloxacin ، OqxAB ، Efflux pump