2014/01/01 by Nourkhoda Sadeghifard, Sadeghifard, Nourkhoda, Sara Soheili +5
Medicine · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Antimicrobial Resistance in Staphylococcus #Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens research #Bacterial Identification and Susceptibility Testing
paper · doi:10.3205/dgkh000225
The current study was conducted to investigate the relationship between vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis (VRE) and the presence of mazEF toxin-antitoxin (TA) system, which may be useful as target for novel antimicrobial therapy concepts. The susceptibility of E. faecalis was determined by MIC, and the presence of the mazEF TA system was evaluated by PCR. Among 200 E. faecalis isolates 39.5% showed resistance to vancomycin (VRE), while 60.5% were susceptible strains (VSE). The mazEF TA system was positive in all VRE isolates (100%), but less prevalent (38/121, 31.4%) among the 121 VSE strains. In conclusion, our study demonstrated a positive relationship between the presence of vancomycin resistance and mazEF TA system. This observation may introduce therapeutic options against a novel antimicrobial target in enterococci.