Upregulation of efrAB efflux pump among Enterococcus faecalis ST480, ST847 in Iran.

Antibiotic resistance and especially multiresistance in Enterococci, is a serious public health issue especially in infections of immunocompromised patients. EfrAB is a heterodimeric multidrug ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter that causes endogenous resistance to antimicrobials including fluoroquinolones in Enterococcus spp. The aim of this study was to seek the gene expression rate and role of efrAB efflux pump in ciprofloxacin resistant Enterococcus faecalis and Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) of multiresistant isolates. Phenotypic and genotyping identification of 80 E. faecalis isolates were performed. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) to ciprofloxacin (CIP) were measured with and without carbonylcyanide 3-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP) by broth microdilution. After DNA extraction and sequencing for detection of efrA and efrB genes, the efrAB efflux positive isolates that were resistant to ciprofloxacin and showed decrease of ciprofloxacin MIC range were identified. Isolates that exhibited decrease in ciprofloxacin MIC range from two to ten folds were assessed for biofilm formation and finally, the expression levels of efrB, efrA genes were measured by quantitative Real-Time PCR (qRT-PCR). High rates of resistance to tetracycline and minocycline and low rates of resistance to the most antibiotics used in this study were detected. The results in this study indicated that the incidence of Multiple drug resistance (MDR) was 23.7% and all isolates that were resistant to ciprofloxacin revealed several degrees of overexpression in efrA and efrB genes. Our study found two ST480 and one ST847 in E. faecalis isolates. In conclusion, despite of low frequency of resistance to the most antibiotics and MDRs in our region, we found one ST480 isolate with resistance to eight antibiotics that also exists in other parts of the world.