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Coordination of las regulated virulence factors with Multidrug-Resistant and extensively drug-resistant in superbug strains of P. aeruginosa

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Abstract

Successful pathogenicity often resulted from a complicated association between virulence and antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the relationship between the las system and antibiotic resistance. Seventy-three (73) P. aeruginosa isolates were collected from burn wounds (26.02%), blood cultures (30.13%), catheters (12.32%), and urine culture (31.50%). Among the 73 collected isolates, 22 isolates were considered as multi-drug resistant (MDR) and 11 isolates as extensively-drug resistant (XDR). Furthermore, phenazines and LasA protease were detected among 21.91% and 32.87% of isolates, respectively. Quantitative real-time PCR assessment of KPC, MBL, and lasI/R indicated that resistance and virulence factors are more expressed in XDR strains than MDR strains. Also, the expression level of KPC and MBL reduced in non-biofilm forming strains. However, increased expression levels of lasI, lasR, and the KPC genes were observed in LasA and LasB protease producing strains. Interestingly, 16 known sequence types (including ST108, ST260, ST217) and three novel STs (ST2452, ST2427, and ST2542) were characterized among the collected isolates, which are related to the virulence and resistance. In MDR-XDR strains, a strong correlation between lasI/R and the variants of antibiotic resistance genes was found. In conclusion, the pathogenicity of P. aeruginosa may increase the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant strains.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

MDR:

Multidrug-resistant

XDR:

Extensively drug-resistant

ESBL:

Extended-spectrum β-lactamase

MBL:

Metallo β-lactamase

QS:

Quorum sensing

CF:

Cystic fibrosis

MEGA5:

Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 5

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Acknowledgments

The authors of this article are grateful to Hamadan University of Medical Sciences for their financial support.

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Centre of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences on the Grant Number 9510075755. This funding's devoted just to purchasing materials used in our study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

    Sanaz Dehbashi, Mohammad Yousef Alikhani & Mohammad Reza Arabestani

  2. Department of Pathobiology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Reza Pourmand

  3. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

    Sara Soleimani Asl

  4. Nutrition Health Research Center, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

    Mohammad Reza Arabestani

Authors
  1. Sanaz Dehbashi
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  2. Mohammad Reza Pourmand
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  3. Mohammad Yousef Alikhani
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  4. Sara Soleimani Asl
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  5. Mohammad Reza Arabestani
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Contributions

SD performed microbiological and molecular tests and wrote the manuscript. MRA supervised all of the stages of designing the study, conducting the research, and writing the manuscript. MRP, MYA and SSA play a role in Project Administration.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohammad Reza Arabestani.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences (Code No: IR.UMSHA.REC.1395402.) about the consent to participate is not applicable.

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Not Applicable.

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In this study, there isn’t any research involving Human participant or animals.

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Dehbashi, S., Pourmand, M.R., Alikhani, M.Y. et al. Coordination of las regulated virulence factors with Multidrug-Resistant and extensively drug-resistant in superbug strains of P. aeruginosa. Mol Biol Rep 47, 4131–4143 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05559-4

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