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Prevalence and molecular characterization of class 1 integrons among clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Northwest of Iran

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Abstract

Introduction

Integrons are introduced as the most common mechanism for resistance gene dissemination in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Aims and tasks

The purpose of the present study was to determine the diversity of the gene cassettes carried with class 1 integrons in clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Methods and results

One hundred clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from four hospitals in Northwest of Iran were investigated for antimicrobial susceptibility, presence of class 1 integrons and associated resistance gene cassettes. Seventy-one percent of isolates were multidrug resistant (MDR) and colistin was the most effective antibiotic in this study. Sixty-six isolates (66%) were contained class 1 integrons which all of them carried gene cassettes. There was a strong correlation between integron presence and multidrug resistance phenotype (p < 0.05). Amplification of the internal variable regions of class 1 integrons revealed 10 different arrays ranging in size from 0.6 to 3.5 kb. DNA sequencing analysis of class 1 integrons revealed the presence of several gene cassettes associated with resistance to aminoglycosides (aac and aad), β-lactams (bla OXA), chloramphenicol (cmlA and catB), hypothetical gene cassette encoding a hypothetical protein and an open reading frame with unknown function (orfD). The most prevalent gene cassette found within class 1 integrons was aadB (68.18%), followed by aacA4 (48.48%). To the best of our knowledge, some of the gene cassettes arrays such as aac(3)-Ic-aacA5-cmlA5 and aacA5-aadA1-cmlA5 were first identified in this study. Hospital ward was demonstrated as significant risk factors for the acquisition of class 1 integrons harboring isolates in this study (P < 0.05).

Conclusions

Most of gene cassette arrays in this study are reported for the first time in Iran. These show the role of integrons in dissemination of resistance genes among clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Drug Applied Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Hamid Reza Goli, Mohammad Reza Nahaei, Hossein Samadi Kafil & Mohammad Aghazadeh

  2. Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Mohammad Ahangarzadeh Rezaee & Alka Hasani

  3. Department of Medical Microbiology and Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Hamid Reza Goli, Mohammad Reza Nahaei, Mohammad Ahangarzadeh Rezaee, Alka Hasani, Hossein Samadi Kafil, Mohammad Aghazadeh & Vajihe Sheikhalizadeh

  4. Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Hamid Reza Goli

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  1. Hamid Reza Goli
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Correspondence to Mohammad Aghazadeh.

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Goli, H.R., Nahaei, M.R., Rezaee, M.A. et al. Prevalence and molecular characterization of class 1 integrons among clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Northwest of Iran. Mol. Genet. Microbiol. Virol. 32, 109–115 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0891416817020057

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S0891416817020057

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