Lilian Jenny Babette Schneider (Vilnius / LT), Jolanta Miciulevičienė (Vilnius / LT), Maksim Bratchikov (Vilnius / LT), Agnė Kirkliauskienė (Vilnius / LT)
Introduction Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infections are prevalent hospital-acquired infections. Strains of S. aureus with the Panton-Valentin Leukocidin Toxin (PVL) acquired higher virulence. PVL gene consists of lukS-PV and lukF-PV genes.1
Goals To define the prevalence of PVL gene of S. aureus strains isolated from hospitalized patients and healthy community in Vilnius, LT.
Materials & methods A retrospective study was conducted with clinical S. aureus strains, which were isolated from 2018-2019 in Vilnius City Clinical Hospital, and community strains, isolated from 2017-2019 in Vilnius. All collected S. aureus strains were analysed for detection of the lukF-PV gene by our designed multiplex real-time PCR protocols. The 16S rRNA coding sequence served as an internal PCR control.
Results In total 615 hospitalized patients and 761 healthy adults from the community participated in the study. 65.7% of clinical strains were isolated from skin and soft tissues, the rest from blood, respiratory tract, urine, and other sites. From the community 329 S. aureus strains were isolated. Community isolation sites were 53.3% from nose, the rest - throat or throat and nose. A total of 944 S. aureus strains were tested for the PVL gene. PVL positive (PVL+) were 7.5% of hospital-isolated strains and 1.2% of community isolates. Among hospital PVL+ strains, the highest antibiotic resistance was found to erythromycin (32.6%), cefoxitin (30.4%) and clindamycin (8.7%). One community PVL+ strain was resistant to penicillin. 71.7% of hospital PVL+ S. aureus was isolated from skin and soft tissues, 13.0% blood, 10.9% respiratory tract, and 2.2% urine. All community PVL+ strains were isolated nasally.
Summary The PVL gene was more prevalent in hospital strains of S. aureus than in community strains, as well as the clinical strains are more likely to have antimicrobial resistance. Skin and soft tissue specimens predominated in clinical PVL+ strains, while community PVL+ strains were exclusively nasal.
References 1 Szumlanski, Tobias, et al. 2023. "Characterization of PVL-Positive MRSA Isolates in Northern Bavaria, Germany over an Eight-Year Period" Microorganisms 11, no. 1: 54.