Detection of Virulence Factors and Antibiotic Resistance Pattern of Clinical and Intensive Care Unit Environmental Isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative non-glucose fermenting aerobic bacteria and an opportunistic pathogen in humans and animals. The present study was carried out to investigate the distribution of virulence factors and antibiotic resistance properties of P. aeruginosa isolated from patients and intensive care unit (ICU) environment. Material and Methods: A total of 116 P. aeruginosa isolated from patients and ICU environment were collected from Besat hospital in Hamadan, the West of Iran. P. aeruginosa isolates were analyzed based on the presence of the virulence factors encoding genes included exoA, exoS, exoU, and algD using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed using a disk diffusion method. Results: The results showed the prevalence of exoA 33 (56.9%), exoS 21 (36.20%), exoU 37 (63.8%), and algD 35 (60.34%) genes in ICU environment P. aeruginosa strains and exo A 23 (39.25%), exoS 25 (43.1%), exoU 40(68.98%), and algD 25 (43.1%) genes in clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa. High resistance levels of the clinical and ICU environment isolate to ampicillinsulbactam (100%), were also observed. Conclusion: Our findings should raise awareness about antibiotic resistance in hospitalized patients in Iran. Clinicians should exercise caution in prescribing antibiotics, especially in cases of human infections.