Impact of clonal lineages on susceptibility of Staphylococcus lugdunensis to chlorhexidine digluconate and chloride benzalkonium

BACKGROUND: Little is known about susceptibility of Staphylococcus lugdunensis to antiseptics. The objective of this study was to evaluate, at the molecular and phenotypic level, the susceptibility of 49 clinical S. lugdunensis strains (belonging to the seven clonal complexes [CCs] defined by multilocus sequence typing) to two antiseptics frequently used in healthcare settings (chlorhexidine digluconate [CHX] and chloride benzalkonium [BAC]). RESULTS: The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), by broth microdilution method, varied for BAC from 0.25 mg/L to 8 mg/L (MIC(50) = 1 mg/L, MIC(90) = 2 mg/L) and for CHX from 0.5 mg/L to 2 mg/L (MIC(50) = 1 mg/L, MIC(90) = 2 mg/L). The BAC and CHX minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) varied from 2 mg/L to 8 mg/L (MBC(50) = 4 mg/L, MBC(90) = 8 mg/L) and from 2 mg/L to 4 mg/L (MBC(50) and MBC(90) = 4 mg/L), respectively. A reduced susceptibility to CHX (MIC = 2 mg/L) was observed for 12.2% of the strains and that to BAC (MIC ≥ 4 mg/L) for 4.1%. The norA resistance gene was detected in all the 49 isolates, whereas the qacA gene was rarely encountered (two strains; 4.1%). The qacC, qacG, qacH, and qacJ genes were not detected. The two strains harboring the qacA gene had reduced susceptibility to both antiseptics and belonged to CC3. CONCLUSION: The norA gene was detected in all the strains, suggesting that it could belong to the core genome of S. lugdunensis. S. lugdunensis is highly susceptible to both antiseptics tested. Reduced susceptibility to BAC and CHX was a rare phenomenon. Of note, a tendency to higher MICs of BAC was detected for CC3 isolates. These results should be confirmed on a larger collection of strains. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12866-023-03088-1.