Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Activity of Staphylococcus lugdunensis Obtained from Two Spanish Hospitals

Abstract

Staphylococcus lugdunensis is a coagulase-negative-staphylococci (CoNS) that lately has gained special attention in public health as a human pathogen and also as a bacteriocin-producer bacteria. In this study, we characterized 56 S. lugdunensis isolates recovered from human samples in two Spanish hospitals. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed and antimicrobial resistance and virulence genotypes were determined. Antimicrobial activity (AA) production was evaluated by the spot-on-lawn method against 37 indicator bacteria, including multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolates, and the presence of the lugD gene coding for lugdunin bacteriocin was analyzed by PCR. The antibiotic resistance detected was as follows (% resistance/genes detected): penicillin (44.6%/blaZ), oxacillin (1.8%/mecA on SCCmec-V), erythromycin-clindamycin inducible (7.1%/erm(C), msrA), tetracycline (5.3%/tetK), gentamicin and/or tobramycin (3.6%/ant(4′)-Ia, acc(6′)-aph(2″)), and fosfomycin (21.4%). A MDR phenotype was detected in 5% of isolates. Twenty-one of the S. lugdunensis isolates showed susceptibility to all 20 antibiotics tested (37.5%). The screening for AA revealed 23 antimicrobial producer (AP) isolates with relevant inhibition against coagulase-positive-staphylococci (CoPS), including both methicillin-susceptible and –resistant S. aureus. The lugD gene was detected in 84% of the 56 S. lugdunensis isolates. All of the AP S. lugdunensis isolates (n = 23) carried the lugD gene and it was also detected in 24 of the non-AP isolates, suggesting different gene expression levels. One of the AP isolates stood out due to its high antimicrobial activity against more than 70% of the indicator bacteria tested, so it will be further characterized at genomic and proteomic level.

Genetic Diversification and Resistome of Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci from Nostrils of Healthy Dogs and Dog-Owners in La Rioja, Spain

“…Remarkably, S. lugdunensis was identified only in four dog-owners but not in dogs. This is a very relevant CoNS species in humans causing diverse clinical infections [ 9 ]. None of the dogs was colonized by this species; however, colonized dog-owners could place their dogs at risk of anthroponotic infections, as has previously been implicated in canine infection [ 29 ].…”

“…Particularly, it is more virulent than other CoNS and has been confirmed to be responsible for life-threatening infective endocarditis [ 7 ]. Moreover, S. lugdunensis is a good bacteriocin producer (lugdunin) against many Gram-positive cocci such as S. aureus [ 8 , 9 ]. Although sparsely reported, some CoNS species (such as methicillin-resistant S. haemolyticus and S. epidermidis ) have been identified as etiological agents for infections in dogs [ 10 , 11 , 12 ], but their zoonotic potential and relevance in canine health need to be determined.…”

Searching for Virulence Factors among Staphylococcus lugdunensis Isolates from Orthopedic Infections: Correlation of β-hemolysin, hemolysin III, and slush Genes with Hemolytic Activity and Synergistic Hemolytic Activity

“…S. lugdunensis has been represented as a "wolf in sheep's clothing" as it causes many serious diseases, such as skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI), subcutaneous tissue infections, bone and joint infections, prosthetic joint infections (PJI), vascular catheter-related infections, infective endocarditis (IE), bacteremia and abscesses [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Although S. lugdunensis is susceptible to most antibiotics [11][12][13][14] and lacks many of the virulence factors that S. aureus possesses, such as protein A, enterotoxins A, B or C, toxic shock syndrome toxin (TSST), hemagglutinin and toxin [1,15], this wolf in disguise appears to be equipped with other virulence factors and is capable of expressing pathological mechanisms. S. lugdunensis can adhere to host matrix proteins with surface adhesins such as the fibrinogen-binding surface protein (Fbl) [16], the putative fibronectin/fibrinogen binding proteins (fbpA), the von Willebrand factor binding protein (vWbf) [17], and the polysaccharide intercellular adhesin (ica) [18] and can produce some cytolytic toxins toward human erythrocytes such as the putative βhemolysin [19], the putative hemolysin III [20,21], and the small cytolytic S. lugdunensis synergistic hemolysins (SLUSH), peptides with δ-toxin-like activity [9,17].…”

Comprehensive Approaches for the Search and Characterization of Staphylococcins

“…In recent times, increasing research focusing on the characterization, mechanisms, activity (mostly against S. aureus ), safety evaluation (including cytotoxicity), and regulations of bacteriocins detected in staphylococci have been reported [ 7 , 19 ]. Recently, we identified and characterized some relevant bacteriocin-producing staphylococci from animal, human, and environmental sources in our laboratory [ 20 , 21 , 22 ].…”