Use of the Polymerase Chain Reaction for the detection of Tetracycline Resistance Genes in Nosocomial Bacteria
Author(s): Navarro C, Carrasco D, Jara MA
Nosocomial infections and antimicrobial resistance represent a worldwide public health problem. Both interact between each other since
the bacteria associated to nosocomial infections are usually resistant to antibiotics, being the multiresistance an increasingly frequent
phenomenon among involved microbial strains.
In the field of veterinary medicine, one of the most frequently used antimicrobials that has shown a reduced effectiveness is the Tetracycline,
a broad-spectrum antibiotic utilized for different therapeutic goals. Resistant bacteria can transmit and acquiring antimicrobial resistant
genes, and particularly tetracycline resistant bacteria present a group of genes named tet. Currently, there have been 43 tet genes described,
which code mainly active efflux proteins and ribosomal protective proteins.
The main goal of this work was the detection of three tetracycline resistant genes; tet(K), involved in the production of efflux proteins, as
well as tet(M) and tet(O), involved in the production of ribosomal protective proteins, using PCR in previously isolated environmental Grampositive
bacterial strains described as nosocomial from veterinary clinical units of the Universidad de Chile.
The implementation of this molecular biology technic allowed us to identify among phenotypical resistant strains through agar diffusion
antibiogram, at least one of the three tetracycline resistance genes. Moreover, in a high percentage of mild resistance strains and in some
tetracycline sensible strains, at least one resistance gene was detected.
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