Prevalence of Panton-Valentine leukocidin toxin encoding gene among clinical strains of Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

Infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus are among the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) gene is produced by S. aureus. PVL is mainly associated with methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infections, and they are more virulent and highly transmissible strains. The aim of this study was to determine antibiotic resistance and detection of the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (lukF-PV) gene. The bacterial collection used for the study was retrieved by Microbiology and Virology Institute from clinical substances of patients from various hospitals in Lithuania. The study sample consisted of 159 clinical strains of S. aureus. The disk diffusion method was used for antibiotic resistance evaluation, and the polymerase chain reaction (PGR) method determined the prevalence of Panton-Valentine leukocidin toxin encoding gene (lukF-PV). After the evaluation of antibiotic resistance of S. aureus strains, benzylpenicillin resistance appeared most frequently among MRSA. All MRSA strains were resistant to cefoxitin and benzylpenicillin, high ciprofloxacin resistance appeared as well, and more than half were characterised as gentamicin-resistant. Prevalence of the Panton-Valentine leukocidin toxin encoding gene among the tested strains was low, but it was determined that luk S/F-PV gene among MRSA was almost twice as prevalent as in methicillin-sensitive strains of S. aureus.