Prevalence of bap and ompA immune evasion genes, biofilm formation ability, antibiotic resistance pattern, and motility of Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from patients with lung infections

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Cell and Molecular Biology & Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Science and Technology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

2 Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

Abstract

Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is recognized as a significant pathogen responsible for hospital-acquired infections. This research is conducted to examine the frequency of bap and ompA immune evasion genes, determining the profile of antibiotic resistance of bacteria and the biofilm-producing ability among the isolates obtained from patients with respiratory infections in Isfahan.
In the present study, among 100 isolates collected from respiratory tract infections, 96 isolates were confirmed as A. baumannii through molecular analysis and biochemical tests. The presence of bap and ompA genes in these isolates was checked by PCR, and antibiotic susceptibility was assessed through the disc diffusion method. Finally, the ability to form biofilm and motility were investigated. Results showed that 100% of the isolates carried the ompA gene. However, for the bap gene, 95.83% of isolates were positive. Investigation of antibiotic resistance showed that A. baumannii isolates exhibited resistance to most antibiotics. The results of the biofilm test revealed that 97.91% of the isolates could form biofilm, including 39.58% with weak biofilm, 44.79% with medium biofilm, 13.54% with strong biofilm, and 2% unable to form biofilm. Moreover, our results show that 6.4% of isolates were non-motile, 45.9% had an intermediate ability for twitching motility, and 47.7% showed a high ability for twitching motility. No correlation was observed between twitching motility, biofilm production, and antibiotic resistance. The present study shows that the bap and ompA genes were highly abundant in lung infection, and most of these isolates were multidrug-resistant and had a high ability to form biofilm and motility.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Microbiology, Metabolites and Biotechnology

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 31 May 2025

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