Escherichia coli sequence type 131 (ST131) carries multiple drug resistance (MDR) genes as well as virulence genes. Drug resistant characteristics give a management problem to health care personnel. Four MDR Escherichia coli ST131 H30-Rx subclones were identified among 80 Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) isolates by using 4 allelic-specific Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCR) in two hospitals of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. There is emergence of multidrug resistant E. coli in Kota Kinabalu.
The three plasmid borne alternative dihydropteroate synthetase (DHPS) genes namely sul1, sul2 and sul3 genes were heterologous in amino acid sequence and have about 40 – 50% identity. However, they have same DHPS activity with disc diffusion zone size of 6 mm with suphamethoxazole disc in our previous study. Sul1, sul2 and sul3 genes were observed in sulphamethoxazole resistant uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). In this study, all the three genes were cloned into E. coli host and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was investigated for each sul gene to compare the activities of sul genes. The MIC values of E.coli containing sul2, sul1 and sul3 genes inserted recombinant plasmid were observed to have 18.5 mg/ml, 18 mg/ml and 17.5 mg/ml respectively as mean value of five experimental results. Although comparable MICs were obtained as a result, the MIC value was highest in E. coli carrying sul2 gene indicating that this DHPS enzyme activity of sul2 was strongest among three sul genes.
Out of bacteria which cause food –borne infections, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is
well known to be pathogen causing serious outbreaks. The first outbreak of EHEC infection occurred
in 1982 was due to ingestion of hamburger at restaurant. A rare Escherichia coli serotype, 0157:H7
was isolated at that time and the following outbreaks were mostly due to this serotype. However, O26,
O111 and O104 were also responsible for EHEC outbreaks. Enterohemorrhagic E. coli is an important
food and water-borne pathogen. Verotoxins (VTs) produced by this pathogen causes painful
hemorrhagic colitis along with major complications of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The
morbidity and significantly high mortality and enormous economic loss are problematic to the health
care administrators and EHEC infection is a serious public health issue. Another factor which makes
it high transmissibility is the low infectious dose. The German O104:H4 epidemic was caused by the
pathogen carrying a combination of virulence genes derived from two well-known pathogens, EHEC
and enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC). There is a possibility that two mobile DNA elements can occur
again in this versatile pathogen. In this article, some aspects of EHEC infections which were
established but not well known to the medical personals were explained to get understanding of why
this infection should not be overlooked and should be under surveillance.