Original article
English
Charles Okechukwu Esimone 1, Chukwuemeka Sylvester Nworu 2, Gugu Thaddeus Harrison 3
1-Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria. 2-Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu, Nigeria. 3-Department of Science Laboratory Tec, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu, Nigeria.
IJMBS 2010;2(4):152-159
Abstract
Multi-antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria represent a global medical challenge, having reduced or threatened to completely eliminate the list of reserved, last-resort agents usually deployed in serious and/or life-threatening infections. Even newer and very potent antibiotics are not spared from the emergence of resistant strains of organisms. In this study, the antibiotic resistance profile and the plasmid profile of some multi-antibiotic resistant bacteria strains isolated from the urine samples of fifty volunteers (ages 15-30) from a community in south eastern Nigeria were analyzed. Eight multidrug-resistant bacteria were isolated from the 50 urine samples, of which approximately 60% showed resistance to nitrofurantion, amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, ampicillin, gentamicin, ampiclox and erythromycin. The MIC of the isolated S. aureus, E. coli, and Klebsiella species to ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, pefloxacin, and co-trimoxazole were greater than 500 µg/ml. Plasmid profile studies revealed the presence of R-plasmids of size range 11-18 kb. The cultures ofresistant isolates irreversibly lost their antibiotic resistance with acridine orange and SDS treatment, which suggests that the resistant genes could be harboured in the plasmids.
Keywords: Antibiogram, antibiotic-resistance, plasmid profile, urinopathogens
Link/DOI: http://journals.sfu.ca/ijmbs/index.php/ijmbs/article/view/61/203