Biomedical Letters

Molecular characterization of Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from MDR-TB patients of Northern Punjab, Pakistan

Waqas Farooq 1, Majeeda Rasheed *2, Nadia Mukhtar 3, Abdul Haque 1, Farkhanda Yasmin 4, Saima Suleman 5, Raees Abbas Lail 6, Hassan Abbas Malik 7, Saba Kabir 8

1 Faisalabad Institute of Research Science and Technology, Faisalabad, Pakistan; 2 Department of Life Sciences, Khawaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan; 3 Department of Microbiology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan; 4 Department of Biosciences &Technology, Khawaja Fareed University of Science and Technology, Raheem Yar Khan, Pakistan; 5 Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, University of Lahore, Pakistan; 6 Department of Pathology, Sahiwal Medical College, Sahiwal- 57000, Pakistan; 7 Department of Biochemistry, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan; 8 Department of Microbiology, University of the Central Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are the most common and severe infectious diseases in developing countries. Acinetobacter baumannii is the bacterium known as causative organism for respiratory tract infections in human populations. The report suggests that co-infection of Acinetobacter baumannii with Mycobacterium tuberculosis together increases health complications in multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) positive patients and creates fatal damage to the ailing population. In our study, 106 sputum samples of MDR-TB positive patients from Northern Punjab were studied. The isolation of A. baumannii from sputum of MDR-TB patients was done on selective media and initially screened by Oxidase and Catalase based identification followed by microscopic examination. Afterward, only ten suspected isolates of A. baumannii were again selected for further characterization for MDR by using Disc diffusion method. Antibiograms against number of antibiotics were accurately determined. Of these 10 isolates, 8 sample were found resistant to levofloxacin and subjected to molecular characterization using bla-OXA-51 primers. Only 3 out of 106 (2.83 %) isolates were confirmed as MDR strains of A. baumannii. These results show the coexistence of MDR A. bauminnii with MDR-TB patients of Northern Punjab, Pakistan. In Northern Punjab regions a higher percentage (3 cases) of MDR- TB were detected, which were co-infected with Acinetobacter baumannii among hospitalized patients. These findings may show unhygienic hospital environment or practices which leads to the co-infection.