Profiling Virulence and Antimicrobial Resistance Markers of Enterovirulent Escherichia Coli from Fecal Isolates of Adult Patients with Enteric Infections in West Cameroon

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to identify virulent and antimicrobial resistant genes in fecal E. coli in Mbouda, Cameroon. METHODS: A total of 599 fecal samples were collected from patients with enteric infections who were ≥ 20 years old. E. coli was isolated on the MacConkey agar and virulent genes were detected by multiplex/simplex PCR. Isolates in which ≥ 1 virulent gene was detected were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing. The resulting resistant isolates were subjected to PCR, followed by sequencing for resistant genes detection. RESULTS: There were 119 enterovirulent E. coli identified, amongst which 47.05% were atypical enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), 36.97% enterotoxigenic E. coli, 10.08% Shiga toxin producing E. coli (STEC) and 5.88% were enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC). The occurrence of the eae gene (47.06%) was higher compared with CVD432 (33.61%), aaic (13.45%), stx2 (10.08%) and stx1 (0.84%). High resistance rates were noted for ampicillin (94.64% EPEC, 91.67% STEC, 59.09% EAEC, and 57.14% EIEC) and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (100% EPEC and 83.33% STEC, 81.82% EAEC and 71.43% EIEC). sul2 (71.43%), tetB (64.71%), tetA (59.94%) and blaTEM (52.10%) were detected. A double mutation (S83L; D87N) was seen in gyrA and a single mutation (S80I) was observed in parC. CONCLUSION: These findings suggested that measures should be taken to reduce the harm of E. coli to public health.