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. 2023;23(2):e230822207951.
doi: 10.2174/1871526522666220823164600.

High Prevalence of Panton-valentine Leukocidin-encoding Genes in Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Inpatients with Invasive Infections at a University Hospital in Southern Brazil

Raquel Soares da Silva  1 , Felipe Crepaldi Duarte  1 , Tiago Danelli  1 , Anna Paula Silva Olak  1 , Gerusa Luciana Gomes Magalhães  1 , Marsileni Pelisson  1 , Stefani Lino Cardim  1 , Guilherme Bartolomeu Gonçalves  1 , Eliana Carolina Vespero  1 , Eliandro Reis Tavares  2 , Lucy Megumi Yamauchi  3 , Marcia Regina Eches Perugini  1 , Sueli Fumie Yamada-Ogatta  1   3
Affiliations

High Prevalence of Panton-valentine Leukocidin-encoding Genes in Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Inpatients with Invasive Infections at a University Hospital in Southern Brazil

Raquel Soares da Silva et al. Infect Disord Drug Targets. 2023.

Abstract

Background: Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of a wide diversity of infections in humans, and the expression of Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL) has been associated with severe clinical syndromes.

Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of PVL-encoding genes in S. aureus isolated from clinical samples of inpatients with invasive infections in a teaching hospital in Southern Brazil. Furthermore, phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of bacterial isolates were analyzed.

Methods: A total of 98 S. aureus isolates recovered from different body sites were characterized according to their antimicrobial susceptibility profile, methicillin-resistance and SCCmec typing, genetic relatedness and occurrence of virulence-encoding genes, such as icaA, lukS-PV/lukF-PV, and tst.

Results: Sixty-eight (69.4%) isolates were classified as methicillin-resistant, and among them, four (5.9%) did not harbor the mecA gene. The mecA-harboring methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates were grouped into SCCmec types I (6.3%), II (64.1%), III (6.3%), IV (15.6%), V (4.7%), and VI (1.6%). One isolate (1.6%) was classified as non-typeable (NT). Seventy isolates (71.4%) were classified as multidrug-resistant. The overall prevalence of virulence-encoding genes was as follows: icaA, 99.0%; tst, 27.5%; and lukS-PV/lukF-PV, 50.0%. The presence of tst gene was significantly higher (p < 0.001) in methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) compared to MRSA isolates.

Conclusion: The present study reports a high prevalence of multidrug-resistant S. aureus harboring lukS-PV/lukF-PV and tst genes in invasive infections. The continuous monitoring of the antimicrobial susceptibility profile and virulence of S. aureus is an important measure for the control of infections caused by this bacterium.

Keywords: Multidrug-resistance; S. aureus; SCCmec typing; intercellular adhesion locus; rep-PCR fingerprinting; toxic shock syndrome toxin.

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