Original Article


Analysis of antimicrobial resistance and class 1 integrons among strains from upper respiratory tract of healthy adults

Haiyan Liu, Hai Wang, Mao Huang, Yaning Mei, Bing Gu, Rui Wu, Yiling Huang, Yi Chen, Yanling Xu, Tong Wang

Abstract

Objective: The distribution and characterization of integrons among opportunistic pathogens from nasopharynx of healthy adults.
Methods: A total of 1,019 nasopharyngeal samples from healthy adults were collected; bacteria were identified by API system; antibiotic susceptibility were tested by K-B method; class 1, 2 and 3 integrons were examined by degenerate primers of the genetic content of integrons were analyzed by PCR and DNA sequencing.
Results: Out of the 1,019 cases, 743 (72.9%) opportunistic pathogens were isolated. The top five commons organism identified were Coagulase-negative staphylococcus (n=404), Staphylococcus aureus (n=109), Haemophilus influenzae (n=74), Streptococcus pneumoniae (n=49) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=32). Eight (25.0%) isolates of K. pneumoniae produced the ESBLs. The isolated rates of S. aureus and H. influenzae were decreased with aging. 6.3% (2/32) K. pneumoniae isolates and 16.7% (1/8) Proteus isolates carried class 1 integrons. Among intI1-positive strains, sequencing analysis revealed that one of the integron positive K. pneumoniae isolates harbored gene cassette aadA5-dfrA17. Proteus isolates harbored gene cassette aadA2-dhfrXII.
Conclusions: The results stressed the need for continued surveillance of bacteria from the asymptomatic carriers.

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