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Prevalence of Antibiotic-Resistant Lactobacilli in Sepsis Patients with Long-Term Antibiotic Therapy

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Abstract

Lactobacilli are the most common probiotic bacteria found in the human gut microbiota, and the presence of acquired antibiotic resistance determinants carried on mobile genetic elements must be screened due to safety concerns. Unnecessary and inappropriate antibiotic therapy, as well as ingested antibiotic resistance bacteria (originating from food or food products), influence the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes in human guts, with serious clinical consequences. The current study looked into the antibiotic resistance of lactobacilli isolated from the guts of sepsis patients on long-term antibiotic therapy. The broth microdilution method was used to investigate the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of antibiotics such as imipenem, meropenem, erythromycin, tetracycline, cefepime, ciprofloxacin, and gentamycin, and the molecular genetic basis of resistance was studied based on the MIC values. The isolates were phenotypically resistant to tetracycline (20%), fluoroquinolone (20%), and macrolide (5%). Following that, resistance genes for tetracycline [tet(L), tet(O), tet(K), and tet(M)], macrolide [erm(B) and erm(C)], and beta-lactams [bla(CMY)] were investigated. Tetracycline or macrolide resistance genes were not found in the isolates, and only one isolate possessed the bla(CMY) resistance gene. The findings suggested that tetracycline and macrolide resistance may be linked to other resistance genes that were not investigated in this study. Because tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones, and macrolides are commonly used in clinics and animals, there has been concern about the spread of resistance in humans. If acquired antibiotic resistance is passed down through mobile genetic elements, it may serve as a reservoir of resistance for gut pathogens and other microbiome environments.

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The data used to support the findings of this study are included within the article and supplementary material.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Max Rubner-Institute for providing microbial culture media for this project.

Funding

This study was supported by Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences [Grant Number: 980433].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Negin Yarahmadi, Parnia Moradi, Alisha Akya, Amirhooshang Alvandi & Jale Moradi

  2. Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Shahnaz Halimi & Akram Rezaei

  3. Department of Infectious Disease, School of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Mohammad Hossein Zamanian & Siavash Vaziri

  4. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Shaghayegh Yazdani

  5. Max Rubner-Institute, Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food, Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Kiel, Germany

    Darab Ghadimi

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Contributions

NY, PM, and AR performed the experiments. DG contributed to conceptualization. MHZ and SV introduced and diagnosed patients with sepsis. SH, AA, and AHA advised the experiment’s performance. JM proposed and supervised the project, acquired funding, and wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Darab Ghadimi.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The project was approved by the ethical committee of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences [Ethic Number: IR.KUMS.REC.1398.495].

Consent to Participate

Written informed consent was obtained from all patients who participated in this study.

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Patients signed the informed consent regarding publishing their data and all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Supplementary Information

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284_2022_3010_MOESM1_ESM.xlsx

Supplementary file1 (XLSX 13 kb)—Supplementary Table 1. The demographics and baseline characteristics of the patient. The supplement table contains information about the patients who were examined, the reason for the initial hospitalization (prior to the diagnosis of sepsis), and the length of hospitalization. During their hospitalization, these patients developed sepsis and were given long-term antibiotics.

Supplementary file2 (DOCX 19 kb)—Supplementary Table 2. The oligonucleotide primers used for PCR assay.

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Yarahmadi, N., Halimi, S., Moradi, P. et al. Prevalence of Antibiotic-Resistant Lactobacilli in Sepsis Patients with Long-Term Antibiotic Therapy. Curr Microbiol 79, 318 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-022-03010-4

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