Detection of virulence genes in resistant enterococci isolated from pediatric patients at high risk for nosocomial infections.
BACKGROUND
The study of virulence genes carried by enterococci has become of greater relevance as nosocomial enterococcal infections have become more prevalent and possibly more severe.


METHODS
Surveillance swabs were performed on children less than 18 months of age in an intensive care unit in Iran in 2012-2013. Multiplex PCR and sequencing methods were used to detect gelE, esp and asa1 genes in enterococci with intermediate or full resistance to vancomycin.


RESULTS
The rate of carriage of the genes was gelE (91%), esp (79%) and asa1 (87%).


CONCLUSIONS
The majority of enterococcal strains with resistance to vancomycin carry genes for all three potential virulence factors that were analyzed in this study. This might explain why enterococcal infections appear to be more virulent than in the past.
Iran University of Medical Sciences, Ali-Asghar Children's Hospital, Tehran, Iran.
Alireza
A
Nateghian
Pediatric Infections Research Center, Mofid Children's Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Fatemeh
F
Fallah
Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran.
Zahra
Z
Daghighi
Department of Microbiology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Hossein
H
Goudarzi
Department of Microbiology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Ali
A
Hashemi
Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. Electronic address: jr3@ualberta.ca.
Joan L
JL
Robinson
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D060885:Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D065507:Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*
D037521:Virulence Factors
Enterococci; Vancomycin resistance; Virulence factors