IDENTIFICATION OF OXA-GENE IN ACINETOBACTER BAUMANNII ISOLATES OBTAINED FROM CLINICAL SPECIMENS AND THE CLONALITY BETWEEN THESE ISOLATES

Atik, Bulent/0000-0002-6876-2963; Baylan, Orhan/0000-0002-6529-7824WOS: 000508954100007Objective: Our study aimed to reveal the OXA-like carbapenernase genes and molecular epidemiological relationship in A. baumannii isolates and compare antibiotic susceptibility status-resistance genes-Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns. Material and Method: A total of 100 A. baumannii isolates obtained from several clinical specimens were examined by VITEK2 automated identification system (Biomerieux, France) for the antibiotic susceptibility profile, by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method for OXA-type beta-lactamuses and by PFGE method for the clonal relationship. Results: 57% of the isolates were obtained from respiratory system specimens. Among all the antibiotics, colistin was the most effective agent with 100% sensitivity, followed by tigecycline with 93%. All of the isolates were resistant to piperacillin, piperacillinitazobaaam and ciprofloxacin. Resistance against both imipenem and meropenem were detected as 95%. OXA-51 gene was found in all and oxil-23 gene was found in 92 (92%) of the isolates. None of the isolates had OXA-24 or OXA-58 genes. We identified 19 different clonal clusters among 100 isolates by PFGE method. We revealed that some of the clones were clustered in a certain period of time, and this was supported by the antibiogram results and OXA gene profiling. Conclusion: Our study identified high rates OXA-23 gene locus positivity, presented the current clonal similarity and time relationship among the clonal clusters. These results emphasize the importance of molecular epidemiological methods as well as standard infection control programs to prevent spreading of A. baumannii