TRs analysis revealed Staphylococcus epidermidis transmission among patients and hospital.

BACKGROUND: As a great opportunistic pathogen, Staphylococcus epidermidis participates in a wide spectrum of infections by residing in the medical devices. Regardless of the clinical importance of S. epidermidis, there are a few data about typing of clinical and non-clinical isolates at the subspecies level in Iran. We used the technique of "Multiple-Locus Variable number tandem repeat Analysis" for genetic differentiation of 107 clinical and non-clinical S. epidermidis isolates. METHODS: Five appropriate Tandem Repeats were selected using bioinformatics programs and PCR-amplified using specific primers. Clustering of the "Multiple-Locus Variable number tandem repeat Analysis" profile was performed using BioNumerics. All isolates yielded a PCR product for all Variable Number Tandem Repeat loci. RESULTS: Approximately 28% of the isolates were Methicillin Resistant S. epidermidis. High level of genetic diversity between isolates was observed. Overly, the S. epidermidis isolates were discriminated into 43 various "Multiple-Locus Variable number tandem repeat Analysis" types. Twenty-seven isolates obtained from blood showed in 21 "Multiple-Locus Variable number tandem repeat Analysis" types, and 10 samples collected from the environment were distributed in three Multiple-Locus Variable number tandem repeat Analysis" types. There was a significant relationship between the Multiple-Locus Variable number tandem repeat Analysis types and isolated strains of blood and the environment indicating the successful colonization of environmental clones in the hospitalized patients in the surgical ward. CONCLUSIONS: The Multiple-Locus Variable number tandem repeat Analysis technique showed information about the transmission of this bacterium among patients, staff and the hospital environment.

Prevalence of metallo­beta­lactamase producing Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from intensive care unit in tertiary care hospitals.

INTRODUCTION: The emergence of Metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL)-producing Acinetobacter baumannii has become a global concern in nosocomial infections. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of MBL producing genes among clinical isolates of A. baumannii from hospitalized patients. METHODS: This study was performed from October 2015 to October 2016 at three teaching hospitals located in Isfahan, Iran. Totally, 100 A-baumannii isolates were collected from clinical specimens and identified as A-baumannii using standard microbiological methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was determined by disc diffusion method according to the CLSI. Furthermore, the determination of bla IMP-1, bla IMP-2, bla VIM-1, bla VIM-2and bla SIM-1 was detected by PCR. RESULTS: Totally, Sixty-eight percent (68%) of isolates of A. baumannii were recovered from tracheal aspirate. According to the antibiotic susceptibility pattern, the highest level of resistance was against ciprofloxacin (99%), while among tested antibiotics amikacin (10%) was found to be the most effective. 21%, 4%, 7% and 6% isolates carried bla IMP-1, bla IMP-2, bla VIM-1 and bla VIM-2 genes, respectively. Also, bla SIM-1 was not detected in any of the isolates. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed high rate of the MBL producing A-baumannii isolates in our region and displayed that MBLs producing A-baumannii strains are emerging threats to ICUs.

Levels of interleukin-(IL)-12p40 are markedly increased in Brucellosis among patients with specific IL-12B genotypes.

Brucellosis remains a major zoonosis worldwide. Brucella antigens induce the production of T-helper 1 (Th1) cytokines such as interleukin-12 (IL-12) in humans. We aimed to investigate the association of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the gene encoding the IL-12p40 cytokine (IL-12B) with brucellosis and to examine the functionality of these SNPs through measuring serum levels of IL-12p40. We genotyped IL-12B gene rs3212227, A>C; rs6887695 G>C polymorphisms in a case-control study on a total of 281 subjects including 153 patients with active brucellosis and 128 healthy controls, using RFLP and serum IL-12p40 levels, were assessed by ELISA. The rs3212227 minor allele (C) and homozygote genotype (CC) were more frequent in controls compared with patients with brucellosis (P = 0.006, OR = 0.608, 95%CI = 0.429-0.861 for the C allele; P = 0.024, OR = 0.443, 95% CI: 0.218-0.900 for the CC genotype). Comparison of IL-12B genotypes and serum levels of the IL-12p40 revealed that rs3212227 AA genotype, with higher frequency in patients than in controls, was associated with increased levels of the cytokine (P = 0.0001). Furthermore, the distribution of haplotype and genotype combinations in our study suggested that rs3212227C/rs6887695C haplotype or CC/GC or CC/CC genotype combinations may protect controls against Brucella infection by contributing to a functional downregulation of the serum IL-12p40 production in vivo, as shown by ELISA (P < 0.05). Overall, our study demonstrated that rs3212227 A variant was associated with higher levels of serum IL-12p40 and could possibly contribute to an inherited predisposition to brucellosis.