Molecular diversity and profile analysis of virulence-associated genes in some Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates

The noticeable increase in the occurrence of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strains separated from different hospitals in Taif city, (Saudi Arabia) demonstrates the limitation of antibiotics used for bacterial eradication. The aim of the present study is to detect the virulence genes in some K. pneumoniae isolates that collected from different hospitals in Taif governorate in Saudi Arabia. A total of 134 clinical samples were used to isolate about twenty three K. pneumoniae strains from various clinical specimens throw six months. They were identified by microbiological method as K. pneumoniae and confirmed with 16S rRNA sequencing analysis. The antimicrobial susceptibility of K. pneumoniae isolates was determined. The existence of virulence genes (AcrAB, tolC, arb, OmpK35, RmpA, fimH-1, entB, K2, irP-1 and Mdtk) were performed by PCR. The multidrug-resistant strains were detected in 16 (69.5%), that showed the presence of the most virulence genes. The multidrug-resistant isolates showed resistance against Ampicillin (96%), Amox-Clav (90%), Cephalothin (90%), Cefuroxime (90%), Ceftriaxone (85%), Aztreonam (87%), Cefepime (80%), Ceftazidime (80%), and Trim-Sulf (82%). Molecular diversity between K. pneumoniae isolates was determined using Rep-PCR markers technique. Thirty eight bands were resulted from the rep-PCR primers. Out of them, 31 bands were polymorphic with a polymorphism average of 81.6%. Total loci detected for each primer varied from 11 to 15 loci, and the loci size ranging from 200 to 2000 bp. These data may present novel epidemiological information regarding the clonal nature of K. pneumoniae separated from Taif governorate hospitals, Saudi Arabia.