Prevalence of Methicillin Resistant and Virulence Determinants in Clinical Isolates of Staphylococcus aureus

Methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA) is the major threat that is a result of the uncontrolled use of antibiotics causing a huge loss in health, so understanding their prevalence is necessary as a public health measure.The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of methicillin-resistant MRSA and virulence determinant among associatedS. aureusfrom the clinical samples obtained from various hospital and health care centers of the Gulbarga region in India.All the collected samples were subjected for the screening ofS. aureusand were further characterized by conventional and molecular methods including their antibiotic profiling. Further, the response of methicillin antibiotic on cell morphology was studied using scanning electron microscopy.A total 126S. aureuswas isolated from the clinical samples which showed, 100% resistant to penicillin, 55.5% to oxacillin, 75.3% to ampicillin, 70.6% to streptomycin, 66.6% to gentamicin, 8.7% to vancomycin and 6.3% to teicoplanin. The selected MRSA strains were found to possessmecA(gene coding for penicillin-binding protein 2A) andfemA(factor essential for methicillin resistance)genetic determinants in their genome with virulence determinants such as Coagulase (coa) and the X region of the protein A (spa)gene. Further, the methicillin response in resistantS. aureusshowed to be enlarged and malformed on cell morphology.The molecular typing of clinical isolates ofS. aureusin this study was highly virulent and also resistant to methicillin; this will assist health professionals to control, exploration of alternative medicines and new approaches to combat Staphylococcal infections more efficiently by using targeted therapy.