GENE EXPRESSION of blaOXA-51-like and blaOXA-23 in RESPONSE to β-Lactam ANTIBIOTIC IN CLINICALLY ISOLATED ACINETOBACTER BAUMANNII AND ACINETOBACTER LOWFFII FROM URINE SAMPLES

Abstract

In this study, two isolates A. lowffii, and A. baumannii were obtained clinically, and genomically identified by 16S rRNA assessment with the accession number (MH685113.1 and MH685112.1) for A. lowffii and A. baumannii respectively. The sensitivity profile of the isolates was variable, and A. baumannii was the most resistant strain towards a wide range of antibiotics, and it did not show any growth defect in the presence of β-lactam antibiotic, in comparison with A. lowffii. We identified that the bla_OXA-23 gene was responsible for imipenem resistance in A. baumannii, whereas, bla_OXA-51-like was moderately confer resistance towards A. lowffii which lack of bla_OXA-23. This was determined when the isolates were subjected to qRT-PCR. We identified that the bla_OXA-23 gene was increased about 1-fold in the presence of imipenem, whereas, bla_OXA-51-like did not increased in comparison to the control. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that bla_OXA-23 is located in the cytoplasm, and bla_{OXA-like 51} is located in the periplasm. Our hypothesis suggests that bla_OXA-23 gene have a major contribution in the outbreak of multidrug resistance Acinetobacter species.