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Neonatal intensive care units: extended spectrum β-lactamase genes and biofilm formation by Serratia marcescens

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Abstract

Background

The increasing cases of bloodstream infections among children at neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) led this work to investigate biofilm production, antibiotics and the presence of ESβL genes in Serratia marcescens (S. marcescens) strains isolated from blood.

Methods

Twenty S. marcescens strains were isolated and identified by the VITEK-2 system over 7 months from late 2022 to mid-2023 from Ibn Al-Balady Hospital in Baghdad. Kirby-Bauer test was used to measure antibiotic susceptibility.

Results

The results revealed that 95% of twenty S. marcescens isolates were non-susceptible to Ampicillin and Amoxicillin-clavulanic. Furthermore, S. marcescens isolates showed a high sensitivity rate 70% toward Imipenem. All S. marcescens strains 100% were produced biofilm. This work clarifies that, out of 20 S. marcescens strains, 80% were harbored ESβL genes. The coexistence of blaTEM, blaCTX and blaSHV genes was shown in 43.75% of strains, while 56.25% of S. marcescens strains harbored single ES\(\upbeta\)L genes. The biofilm values increase with the accuracy of EsβL genes. Phylogenetic analyses based on the sequence of blaCTX-M and blaTEM were done with closely related genes in the GenBank using MEGA6 software.

Conclusions

The distribution of blaTEM, blaCTX and blaSHV genes among local S. marcescens strains may be attributed to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics. The results confirmed the spread of ESβL genes in S. marcescens from blood infections among newborn infants.

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Acknowledgements

This work was sponsored by the Biology department/ College of science/ Mustansiriyah University (www.Mustansiriyah.com).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, College of Science, Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, Iraq

    Hadeel K. Musafer, Nadheema H. Hussein & Sawsan M. Kareem

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  1. Hadeel K. Musafer
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  2. Nadheema H. Hussein
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  3. Sawsan M. Kareem
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Contributions

H.K.M. Proposal writing, revising, reading, approving, and submitting the final manuscript. N.H.H: study design, acquisition of data, proposal writing, and drafting of the manuscript. S.M.K.: study design, aquation and analysis of data, proposal writing, and drafting the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hadeel K. Musafer.

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The authors declared that there are no competing financial interests that could appear to influence the study reported in the manuscript.

Ethical approval

Clinical samples were taken with the approval and recommendation of the Iraqi Ministry of Health Research Ethics Commission. The ethical committee approval number for this study is CSEC/1020/0088.

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Musafer, H.K., Hussein, N.H. & Kareem, S.M. Neonatal intensive care units: extended spectrum β-lactamase genes and biofilm formation by Serratia marcescens. Mol Biol Rep 51, 167 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-023-09124-7

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