Assessing the genetic basis of antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli through advanced electrophoretic and PCR techniques
Abstract
Escherichia coli resistance to antibiotics is a growing concern for the global population, particularly in hospitals. This r e search proposal seeks to determine the genetic factors affecting antibiotic resistance in E. coli isolated from culture urine and sputum samples in a given area. We examined 150 samples using gel electrophoresis and PCR methods to study antibiotic resistance patterns and identify the genes responsible for resistance. Sample collections included urine and sputum samples, E. coli isolation, and antibiotic sensitivity tests using the disk diffusion technique. We performed PCR and other molecular procedures to identify gene resistance associated with ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, nitrofurantoin, ceftazidime, gentamicin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. The results show that there was a high level of antibiotic resistance. For example, 70% of the isolates were not sensitive to ampicillin. Other antibiotics that encountered resistan ce were ciprofloxacin (35%), ceftaz i dime (40%), gentamicin (25%), and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (30%). Molecular typing also found important resi s tance genes, like blaTEM, qnrA, and aac (3), in many of the resistant isolates. This shows that the observed resistance pr o files are based on genes. In conclusion, this study underscores the importance of implementing antibiotic stewardship mea s ures and continuously monitoring the antibiotic resistance of E. coli . Knowledge of the genetic profile of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is essential in the formulation of specific treatment regimens to improve patients' lives and, ultimately, reduce the effects of antibiotic-resistant infections on public health.References
Abdelwahab, G. E., Ishag, H. Z. A., Al Hammadi, Z. M., Al Yammahi, S. M. S., Mohd Yusof, M. F. B., Al Yassi, M. S. Y., Al Neyadi, S. S. A., Al Mansoori, A. M. A., Al Hamadi, F. H. A., Al Hamadi, I. A. S., Hosani, M. A. A. A., & Al Muhairi, S. S. M. (2022). Antibiotics resistance in Escherichia coli isolated from livestock in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2014–2019. International Journal of Microbiology, 2022, 3411560.
Ahmed, I., Rabbi, M. B., & Sultana, S. (2019). Antibiotic resistance in Bangladesh: A systematic review. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 80, 54–61.
Akter, S., Chowdhury, A. M. M. A., & Mina, S. A. (2021). Antibiotic resistance and plasmid profiling of Escherichia coli isolated from human sewage samples. Microbiology Insights, 14, 11786361211016808.
Al Lawati, H., Blair, B. M., & Larnard, J. (2024). Urinary tract infections: Core curriculum 2024. American Journal of Kidney Diseases, 83(1), 90–100.
Alhadlaq, M. A., Aljurayyad, O. I., Almansour, A., Al-Akeel, S. I., Alzahrani, K. O., Alsalman, S. A., Yahya, R., Al-Hindi, R. R., Hakami, M. A., AlShahrani, S. D., Alhumeed, N. A., Al Moneea, A. M., Al-Seghayer, M. S., AlHarbi, A. L., Al-Reshoodi, F. M., & Alajel, S. (2024). Overview of pathogenic Escherichia coli, with a focus on Shiga toxin-producing serotypes, global outbreaks (1982–2024) and food safety criteria. Gut Pathogens, 16(1), 57.
Awayid, H. S., & Mohammad, S. Q. (2022). Prevalence and antibiotic resistance pattern of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from Iraqi hospitals. Archives of Razi Institute, 77(3), 1147–1156.
Bantawa, K., Sah, S. N., Subba Limbu, D., Subba, P., & Ghimire, A. (2019). Antibiotic resistance patterns of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Shigella and Vibrio isolated from chicken, pork, buffalo and goat meat in Eastern Nepal. BMC Research Notes, 12(1), 766.
Cheng, J., Qu, W., Barkema, H. W., Nobrega, D. B., Gao, J., Liu, G., De Buck, J., Kastelic, J. P., Sun, H., & Han, B. (2019). Antimicrobial resistance profiles of 5 common bovine mastitis pathogens in large Chinese dairy herds. Journal of Dairy Science, 102(3), 2416–2426.
Cho, S., Nguyen, H. A. T., McDonald, J. M., Woodley, T. A., Hiott, L. M., Barrett, J. B., Jackson, C. R., & Frye, J. G. (2019). Genetic characterization of antimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli isolated from a mixed-use watershed in Northeast Georgia, USA. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(19), 3761.
Chowdhury, A. M. M. A., Akter, S., & Mina, S. A. (2020). Isolation, identification and functional characterization of Escherichia coli as probiotic against Shigella in Bangladesh. Indian Journal of Microbiology Research, 7(4), 313–321.
El Garch, F., Youala, M., Simjee, S., Moyaert, H., Klee, R., Truszkowska, B., Rose, M., Hocquet, D., Valot, B., Morrissey, I., de Jong, A., & VetPath Study Group (2020). Antimicrobial susceptibility of nine udder pathogens recovered from bovine clinical mastitis milk in Europe 2015–2016: VetPath results. Veterinary Microbiology, 245, 108644.
Essa, S. H., Mohammad, S. Q., Kadhum, D. A., & Jalil, I. S. (2024). Effectiveness of silver nanoparticles as antibacterial agents with natural wound healing cream with extracted Aloe vera gel. Regulatory Mechanisms in Biosystems, 15(4), 821–825.
Ferrario, C., Alessandri, G., Mancabelli, L., Gering, E., Mangifesta, M., Milani, C., Lugli, G. A., Viappiani, A., Duranti, S., Turroni, F., Ossiprandi, M. C., Hiyashi, R., Mackie, R., van Sinderen, D., & Ventura, M. (2017). Untangling the cecal microbiota of feral chickens by culturomic and metagenomic analyses. Environmental Microbiology, 19(11), 4771–4783.
Gupta, S. K., Padmanabhan, B. R., Diene, S. M., Lopez-Rojas, R., Kempf, M., Landraud, L., & Rolain, J. M. (2014). ARG-ANNOT, a new bioinformatic tool to discover antibiotic resistance genes in bacterial genomes. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 58(1), 212–220.
Johura, F. T., Tasnim, J., Barman, I., Biswas, S. R., Jubyda, F. T., Sultana, M., George, C. M., Camilli, A., Seed, K. D., Ahmed, N., & Alam, M. (2020). Colistin-resistant Escherichia coli carrying mcr-1 in food, water, hand rinse, and healthy human gut in Bangladesh. Gut Pathogens, 12, 5.
Lesani, S. S., Soleimani, M., Shakib, P., & Zolfaghari, M. R. (2020). Prevalence of blaCTX-M, blaSHV, and blaTEM genes in Escherichia coli strains isolated from urinary tract infection samples of patients in the intensive care unit in Qom, Iran. Gene, Cell and Tissue, 7(2), e102700.
Li, K., Hou, M., Zhang, L., Tian, M., Yang, M., Jia, L., Liang, Y., Zou, D., Liu, R., & Ma, Y. (2022). Analysis of antimicrobial resistance and genetic correlations of Escherichia coli in dairy cow mastitis. Journal of Veterinary Research, 66(4), 571–579.
Mohammad, S. Q., Awayid, H. S., & Zarrouk-Mahjoub, S. (2024). Identification of virulence genes from clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Biodiversitas, 25(12), 5083–5093.
Mohammad, S. Q., Mohsen, A. K., Jalil, I. S., & Mohsein, O. A. (2024). Assessing the prevalence of bacterial vaginosis among infertile women in Thi-Qar Province, Iraq. Infection Epidemiology and Microbiology, 10(4), 287–296.
Moran, R. A., Anantham, S., Holt, K. E., & Hall, R. M. (2017). Prediction of antibiotic resistance from antibiotic resistance genes detected in antibiotic-resistant commensal Escherichia coli using PCR or WGS. The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 72(3), 700–704.
Waturangi, D. E., Hudiono, F., & Aliwarga, E. (2019). Prevalence of pathogennic Escherichia coli from salad vegetable and fruits sold in Jakarta. BMC Research Notes, 12(1), 247.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons «Attribution» 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
