Molecular Study of Immune Evasion Cluster Genes in Clinical Isolates of Staphylococcus aureus

The aim of the present research was to highlight the prevalence of immune evasion cluster genes (IEC) sak, chp, scn, sea, sep among Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) clinical isolates. The present study was a cross-sectional retrospective study, included one hundred isolates of S. aureus that were isolated from patients with nosocomial infections. S. aureus isolates were subjected to full microbiological identification and antibiotics sensitivity testing by the disc diffusion method. The presence of IEC genes scn, sea, sak, sep, chp was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The current study included 100 S. aureus isolates; 40% were classified as methicillin resistant. The isolates exhibited marked resistance to beta lactams antibiotics, the lowest resistance was to erythromycin, ciprofloxacin and vancomycin. The presence of one or more IEC was determined in 89 isolates. The prevalence of chp, sak, sea, sep and scn was 54%, 53%, 8%, 7% and 30%, respectively. S. aureus isolates with IEC genes had increased resistance rates to the studied antibiotics; however, this increase was statistically insignificant either to beta-lactam antibiotics, such as amoxacillin/clavulinic acid (P=0.794), ampicillin (P=0.561), cefotaxim (P=0.271), ceftazidime (P=0.145), imipenem (P=0.589) or non beta-lactam antibiotics, such as amikacin (P=0.955) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazale (P=0.974). From 40 methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains, 37 isolates harbor one or more immune evasion cluster genes. The high prevalence of these genes among MRSA may explain its pathogenesis. There is a need for studies with a high number of isolates to verify the present findings.