Virulence-associated gene profile and multilocus sequence type analysis of human and fomite-derived methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of healthcare-associated (HA) and community-acquired (CA) infections. In the Philippines, isolation of MRSA has been reported from human and fomite sources, but very few studies have examined the relationship between the profiles of their virulence-associated genes (VAG) and multilocus sequence types (MLST), which is important to establish so that effective prevention strategies can be designed and implemented. In this study, 20 MRSA isolates from human and fomite sources were analyzed to determine possible associations between their VAG profiles and sequence types (ST). Results show that the hla and hld genes that code for hemolysins had prevalence levels of 95 and 100%, respectively. The pvl gene coding for Panton-Valentine leucocidin (PVL) had a prevalence of 30%, which puts into question its utility as a marker of CA-MRSA. MLST revealed six new ST that belonged to six clonal complexes (CC), which included three new singletons that are being reported for the first time. No significant association was observed between the VAG profiles and ST, primarily because of the high prevalence rate of the VAG analyzed in the study.