Association of CRISPR-Cas System with the Antibiotic Resistance and Virulence Genes in Nosocomial Isolates of Enterococcus

作者：Shuan Tao, Huimin Chen, Na Li, Yewei Fang, Xu Yao, Wei Liang · 发表于：Infection and Drug Resistance · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.2147/idr.s388354 · 被引用次数：31 · 研究领域：CRISPR and Genetic Engineering、Microbial Metabolism and Applications、Antimicrobial Resistance in Staphylococcus

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of the CRISPR-Cas system in nosocomial isolates of Enterococcus and their possible association with antibiotic resistance and virulence genes. Materials and Methods: Identification and antimicrobial susceptibility of the microorganism were performed by the automatized VITEK 2 Compact system (bioMerieux, France). A total of 100 Enterococcus isolates were collected and identified by VITEK 2 Compact automatic microbial identification drug susceptibility analyzer. The prevalence of various CRISPR-Cas systems, antibiotic resistance genes and virulence genes were investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The prevalence of CRISPR-Cas systems associated with antibiotic resistance and virulence genes was performed by appropriate statistical tests. Results: A total of 100 isolates of Enterococcus were identified and there were 62/100(62.0%) Enterococcus faecalis isolates and 38/100(38.0%) Enterococcus faecalis isolates. In total, 46 (46.0%) of 100 isolates had at least one CRISPR-Cas locus. CRISPR elements were more prevalent in Enterococcus faecalis isolates. The results of PCR demonstrated that CRISPR1-Cas, orphan CRISPR2, and CRISPR3-Cas were present in 23 (23.0%), 42 (42.0%) and 5 (5.0%) Enterococcus isolates, respectively. Compared with CRISPR-Casnegative isolates, the CRISPR-Cas positive isolates showed significant lower resistance rates against ampicillin, erythromycin, levofloxacin, tetracycline, vancomycin, gentami...