Molecular characterization of Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive community-acquired methicillin-resistant...

Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) expressing Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) have been characterized worldwide, but it has not been done in Egypt. In this study, we analyzed the molecular characteristics of PVL+CA-MRSA in Egypt, compared their genetic patterns with that of PVL+ methicillin-susceptible S. aureus and PVL+CA-MRSA from different countries, and investigated the allelic variations among their lukS-PV and lukF-PV gene sequences. The prevalence of PVL+MRSA was 19.04%. They belonged to different genetic clones with multi-locus sequence types (MLST) 30, 80, and the novel type 1010. ST80 strains showed unique antibiotic resistance profile that was distinguishable from the European ST80 clone: they had no resistance to tetracycline and fusidic acid. Two nonsynonymous substitutions in the lukS-PV gene region and two haplotype variants among these isolates were detected. We revealed that PVL is a good marker for CA-MRSA infections and that PVL+ isolates belonged to different genotypes.