COMPARISON OF VIRULENCE GENES, BIOFILM FORMATION, AND ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE PATTERN IN E. FAECALIS AND E. FAECIUM ISOLATED FROM CLINICAL AND COMMENSAL HUMAN SAMPLES IN ISFAHAN, IRAN

Background and Aim: The aim of this study was to determine and compare of antibiotic resistance profile, biofilm formation and frequency of agg and ace genes in Enterococcus species isolated from patients and healthy individual.Methods:A total of 90 non-duplicate Enterococcus isolates were collected from patients and healthy individuals. Antibiotic susceptibility pattern was determined by disk diffusion and E-test method. Determination of virulence genes was performed by the PCR amplification. The capacity of biofilm formation was also evaluated by microplate approach.Results:E. faecalis was the predominant species in the clinical isolates (80%). The prevalence of agg and ace genes were 37.8% and 73.3% in clinical and 8.9% and 11.1% in healthy human samples, respectively (P < 0.05). The rate of MDR strains were 73.3% and 11.1% in clinical and commensal isolates, respectively (P < 0.001). The ability of biofilm formation was notably high in clinical in comparison of commensal isolates (P < 0.05) (100% vs 75.6%). The frequency of ace and agg genes and biofilm formation were significantly higher in clinical than healthy isolates (P < 0.05).Conclusion:Distribution of healthy individual’s enterococci can lead to spread of virulence genes and resistance between clinical strains.

کلیدواژه ها:

antibiotic resistance ، biofilm formation ، Enterococcus faecalis ، Enterococcus faecium ، virulence gene