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Abundance of extended-spectrum β-lactamase genes among intestinal Escherichia coli strains from drug users

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Abstract

Drug users may represent a hidden reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes among their intestinal flora due to the poor hygiene and inappropriate use of antibiotics. Therefore, this study was focused to examine the prevalence of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) genes among intestinal Escherichia coli isolated from drug users in Ahvaz, Iran. Among clients of toxicology laboratory who were confirmed their addiction to each of Morphine, Amphetamine or Methamphetamine, 109 drug users were examined voluntarily for infection with hepatitis B or C using commercial enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) method. Their stool specimens were obtained to isolate intestinal E. coli. The disc diffusion and combination disk methods were conducted to demonstrate antibiotic resistance pattern and phenotypically ESBL producers. ESBL-encoding genes (bla-TEM, bla-CTX-M, and bla-SHV) were also examined by PCR. Based on results, hepatitis C infection was more prevalent than hepatitis B among drug users. Of 109 isolates, a total of 57 (52.29%) ESBL positive E. coli were obtained from drug users and bla-TEM gene (60.55%) was found to be the most prevalent type, followed by bla-CTX-M (40.36%) and bla-SHV (39.44%). All isolates represented different resistance levels to tested antibiotics and 54.43% of the ESBL‑producing isolates showed multidrug resistance (MDR) and the most frequent MDR pattern was simultaneous resistance to the seven (27.90%) of antimicrobials particularly erythromycin, penicillin, amoxycilin, cefteriaxon, cefotaxim, tetracycline and trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole. Fecal carriage of ESBL-production and MDR commensal isolates such as E. coli among drug users underlines the risk of transferring resistance genes between nonpathogenic and pathogenic bacteria.

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Data availability

The data used to support the findings of the study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgments

We are deeply thankful to Department of Biology, East Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran for providing the opportunity to carry out this research work.

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No competing financial interests exist.

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The authors declare that this work did not receive any funding or special assistant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, East Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Alireza Barani & Akram Sadat Tabatabaee Bafroee

  2. Department of Microbiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

    Leila Jabalameli

Authors
  1. Alireza Barani
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  2. Akram Sadat Tabatabaee Bafroee
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  3. Leila Jabalameli
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Contributions

All authors cooperated to experimental design of research study. Material preparation and data collection were done by Alireza Barani. Data analysis was carried out by Akram Sadat Tabatabaee Bafroee and Leila Jabalameli. The manuscript was written by Akram Sadat Tabatabaee Bafroee and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Akram Sadat Tabatabaee Bafroee.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Barani, A., Tabatabaee Bafroee, A.S. & Jabalameli, L. Abundance of extended-spectrum β-lactamase genes among intestinal Escherichia coli strains from drug users. Arch Microbiol 203, 3245–3255 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-021-02316-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-021-02316-4

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