Quinolones Resistance And R-Plasmids Of Clinical Isolates Of Pseudomonas Species

Abstract

Background: There has been reported incidence in the emergence of
Quinolones resistance in clinical isolates in Nigeria and the level in resistance has been on the increase.
Objective: To determine the antimicrobial resistance patterns and plasmids profiles of 67 clinical Pseudomonas species from a teaching hospital and diagnostic laboratory in Nigeria.
Materials and methods: The Pseudomonas species were identified and confirmed by standard procedures. The antibiotic susceptibility patterns were determined by Agar Disk Diffusion method.
Plasmids DNA was isolated, separated and stained as previously described.
Results: 30 of these clinical isolates were found to be resistant to 6 quinolones antibiotics with ciprofloxacin being the highest [52.24%] and norfloxacin [38.81%] the lowest. All the strains that were resistant to any antimicrobial agents were also resistant to ciprofloxacin. A total of 54 plasmids ranging in molecular sizes from 3.55kb to 19.95kb were extracted from the resistant strains and grouped into 5 plasmid profiles. Transformation experiment revealed that 66.67% of the resistant strains carried a common R plasmid of size 15.85kb. Plasmid mediated resistant to ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin were found.
Conclusion: The results highlighted diverse plasmids profile and wide spread antimicrobial
resistance patterns of some clinical Pseudomonas species from Nigeria.

Keywords: Quinolones, R-plasmids, Pseudomonas.

Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences Vol. 3 (2) 2008: pp. 139-146