Multi-drug resistant pathogenic bacteria in the gut of young children in Bangladesh

Abstract

BackgroundThe gut of human harbors diverse commensal microbiota performing an array of beneficial role for the hosts. In the present study, the major commensal gut bacteria isolated by culturing methods from 15 children of moderate income families, aged between 10 and 24 months, were studied for their response to different antibiotics, and the molecular basis of drug resistance.ResultsOf 122 bacterial colonies primarily selected from Luria–Bertani agar, bacterial genera confirmed by analytical profile index (API) 20E® system included Escherichia as the predominant (52%) organism, followed by Enterobacter (16%), Pseudomonas (12%), Klebsiella (6%), Pantoea (6%), Vibrio (3%), and Citrobacter (3%); while Aeromonas and Raoultella were identified as the infrequently occurring genera. An estimated 11 and 22% of the E. coli isolates carried virulence marker genes stx-2 and eae, respectively. Antimicrobial susceptibility assay revealed 78% of the gut bacteria to be multidrug resistant (MDR) with highest resistance to erythromycin (96%), followed by ampicillin (63%), tetracycline (59%), azithromycin (53%), sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (43%), cefixime (39%), and ceftriaxone (33%). PCR assay results revealed 56% of the gut bacteria to possess gene cassette Class 1 integron; while 8, 17.5 and 6% of the strains carried tetracycline resistance-related genes tetA, tetB, and tetD, respectively. The macrolide (erythromycin and azithromycin) resistance marker genes mphA, ereB, and ermB were found in 28, 3 and 5% of bacterial isolates, respectively; while 26, 12, 17, 32, 7, 4 and 3% of the MDR bacterial isolates carried the extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-related genes e.g., bla TEM, bla SHV, bla CMY-9, bla CTX-M1, bla CTX-M2, bla CMY-2 and bla OXA respectively. Majority of the MDR gut bacteria harbored large plasmids [e.g., 140 MDa (43%), 105 MDa (30%), 90 MDa (14%)] carrying invasion and related antibiotic resistance marker genes.ConclusionsOur results suggest gut of young Bangladeshi children to be an important reservoir for multi-drug resistant pathogenic bacteria carrying ESBL related genes.

Colistin resistant Escherichia coli carrying mcr-1 in urban sludge samples: Dhaka, Bangladesh

“…Our results confirmed the colistin resistant E. coli to be multidrug resistant (MDR) as the isolate E3B was resistant to 10 different antibiotics: Nalidixic acid, Ciprofloxacin, Levofloxacin, Azithromycin, Gentamicin, Erythromycin, Sulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim, Ampicillin, Cephalothin and Tetracycline, but sensitive to Mecillinam, Fosfomycin, Ceftriaxone, Cefixime and Meropenem. This appears to be an alarming trend for a populous country like Bangladesh where infection control is becoming increasingly challenging due to the rise of multidrug resistance among members of the family Enterobacteriaceae , including E. coli [ 11 , 12 ].…”

Human, animal and environmental contributors to antibiotic resistance in low-resource settings: integrating behavioural, epidemiological and One Health approaches

“…R. Soc. B 285: 20180332 10-24 months (n ¼ 15) in Bangladesh, some of which were ESBL-producing [26].…”

Characterization of Four Multidrug Resistance Plasmids Captured from the Sediments of an Urban Coastal Wetland

“…Previous work on the fate of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their resistance genes in the natural environment has focused largely on the impacts of animal production facilities (e.g., Burgos et al, 2005 ; Koike et al, 2007 ; Li et al, 2011 ; Brauer et al, 2016 ), which employ antibiotics for disease prevention and treatment as well as growth promotion. There is growing evidence, however, that bacteria of the human colon carry numerous acquired resistance genes ( Salyers et al, 2004 ; Monira et al, 2017 ). It is not surprising, then, that human sewage has been documented as a vast reservoir of acquired resistance genes ( Bönemann et al, 2006 ; Schlüter et al, 2007 ; Szczepanowski et al, 2009 ), many of which are encoded on self-transmissible plasmids.…”