Presence of virulence genes and pathogenicity islands in extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli isolates from Brazil.

International audienceExtraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) is associated with various diseases such as urinary tract infections, neonatal meningitis and septicemia. There are many virulence factors (VF) encoded by genes in ExPEC, including papC, papG, ecpA, iroN, fyuA, iutA, ompTp, tsh, hlyF, hlyA and iss. These virulence genes may be present in pathogenicity islands (PAI) or plasmids. In this study, we analyzed the presence of VF encoding genes, PAI sequences and phylogenetic groups of 96 ExPEC strains isolated from the urine and blood of patients at the University Hospital of Londrina, and we compared them with 50 faecal commensal strains from healthy individuals. The VF fyuA (65.60%) was detected in pathogenic strains and commensal strains (46%). A comparison of the distribution of ExPEC and commensal strains in the phylogenetic groups showed that more ExPEC strains belonged to group B2 whereas more of the commensal isolates belonged to group A. The distribution of the seven PAI sequences between commensal strains and ExPEC strains showed that PAI IV536 was common in both ExPEC and commensal isolates. These results showed that the ExPEC strains that belonged to group B2 had more PAI sequences compared to those of the other groups, especially group B1, which had virulence genes but the lowest percentage of PAI sequences, which leads us to conclude that the virulence of ExPEC strains characterized as B2 is likely attributed to PAI encoded genes, whereas the virulence of ExPEC strains belonging to phylogenetic group B1 is likely due to plasmid encoded virulence genes

Trends in antimicrobial resistance among clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus in a university hospital of the north of Paraná from 2002 through 2011

Staphylococcus aureus are pathogens with high incidence of nosocomial infections and community and has great ability to acquire resistance. The objective of this study was to determine susceptibility to antimicrobial profiles of S. aureus isolated in Londrina University Hospital, from January 2002 through December 2011. The retrospective analysis of 3,494 S. aureus performed from a database of Clinical Laboratory Microbiology HU sector. Antibiotic resistance was judged according to the criteria recommended by the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute. The highest percentages of resistance was founding to erythromycin (49.4%), clindamycin and oxacillin (41.8%) and ciprofloxacin (36.5%). In addition, there was a significant reduction in gentamicin resistance rates, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazol. All strains studied were susceptible to linezolid. We found that 40% showed reduced susceptibility to vancomycin. These data indicate a possible change in the epidemiology of S. aureus in our region, which can bring impact on the treatment and control of infection by this agent