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Updated: May 24, 2026

Biosensor for Detection of Antibiotic Resistant Staphylococcus Bacteria
Published on: May 8, 2013
A novel δ-hemolysis screening method for detecting heteroresistant vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus and
V Cafiso1, T Bertuccio, D Spina
1Department of Bio-Medical Sciences, Microbiology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
Abstract:
We assessed a new screening method, based on δ-hemolysin production in the presence of 6 mg/liter vancomycin, to distinguish heteroresistant vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (hVISA) and vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (VISA) from vancomycin-susceptible S. aureus (VSSA). On 37 clinical methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates, hVISA and VISA displayed no δ-hemolysis whereas VSSA displayed strong δ-hemolysis, showing 91.6% sensitivity. These data, supported by real-time reverse transcription PCR (real-time RT-PCR) highlighting an hld downregulation, i.e., VSSA>hVISA>VISA, define this new assay as a valid screening method.
