Virulence Characteristics of Multiple Drug Resistant Uropathogenic Escherichia coli from patients in some clinics of Sebha

Abstract

Urinary tract infections are the most common health problems in many countries of the world. Although E. coli is normal intestinal flora but considered as the main prominent opportunistic active uropathogen because of its pathogenicity which referred to it’s different virulence factors like hemolysin, biofilm, enterotoxins and others. In this study, 18 negative bacterial species were isolated from 30 urine samples for outpatients of some clinics in Sebha city, where Escherichia coli was the most common bacterial species in the patients of both sexes (19.15%). Virulent strains were identified based on its resistance to antibiotics, hemolysis, cell surface hydrophobicity as well as the formation of biofilm. The sensitivity test of Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) strains showed that all isolates were multi drug resistant as 100% of the strains were resistant to antibiotics like Oxacillin, Penicillin, Ampicillin, Amoxicillin while only (13%) of the strains were resistant to Nitrofurantion, Ciprofloxacin, Imipenem. The results showed that all isolates had not the ability to produce hemolysin, but they differed in their ability to form biofilm, where (33.3%) of the strains formed a thick biofilm, while) 40%( formed moderate biofilm and only (26.7%) of the strains formed weak biofilm, Additionally, we found that (66.6%) of the strains carried hydrophibicity markers while (33.3%) of the UPEC strains did not have those markers. Occurrence of virulence factors in UPEC strains confirms the association of UPEC with urinary pathogenicity and their resistance to antibiotics.