Unraveling Enterococcus susceptibility to quaternary ammonium compounds: genes, phenotypes, and the impact of environmentalc onditions

• Tipo: Artigo em Revista Científica Internacional
• Data: 2023

Autores

Pereira, AP (Autor) Outra; Antunes, Patrícia (Autor) FCNAUP; Bierge, P (Autor) Outra; Willems, RJL (Autor) Outra; Corander, J (Autor) Outra; Coque, TM (Autor) Outra; Pich, OQ (Autor) Outra; Peixe, L. (Autor) FFUP; Freitas, AR (Autor) Outra; Novais, Carla (Autor) FFUP

Revista

Título: Microbiology spectrum

Vol. 11

ISSN: 2165-0497

Editora: American Society for Microbiology

Indexação

ISI Web of Knowledge - 0 Citações

Scopus - 3 Citações

Classificação Científica

CORDIS: Ciências da Saúde

FOS: Ciências médicas e da saúde

Projetos Associados

AGRIFOOD-XXI - AGRIFOOD-XXI

Outras Informações

ID Authenticus: P-00Z-756

DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.02324-23

Abstract (EN): Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) have been extensively used in the community, healthcare facilities, and food chain, in concentrations between 20 and 30,000 mg/L. Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium are ubiquitous in these settings and are recognized as nosocomial pathogens worldwide, but QACs' activity against strains from diverse epidemiological and genomic backgrounds remained largely unexplored. We evaluated the role of Enterococcus isolates from different sources, years, and clonal lineages as hosts of QACs tolerance genes and their susceptibility to QACs in optimal, single-stress and cross-stress growth conditions. Only 1% of the Enterococcus isolates included in this study and 0.5% of publicly available Enterococcus genomes carried qacA/B, qacC, qacG, qacJ, qacZ, qrg, bcrABC or oqxAB genes, shared with >60 species of Bacillota,Pseudomonadota,Actinomycetota,or Spirochaetota. with >60 species of Bacillota, Pseudomonadota, Actinomycetota, or Spirochaetota. These genes were generally found within close proximity of antibiotics and/or metals resistance genes. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) of benzalkonium chloride (BC) and didecyldimethylammonium chloride ranged between 0.5 and 4 mg/L(microdilution:37 degrees C/20h/pH = 7/aerobiosis)chloride ranged between 0.5 and 4 mg/L (microdilution: 37 degrees C/20 h/pH = 7/aerobiosis) for 210 E. faecalis and E. faecium isolates (two isolates carrying qacZ). Modified growth conditions (e.g., 22 degrees C/pH = 5) increased MICBC/MBCBC (maximum of eightfold and MBCBC =16mg/L)and changed bacterial growth kinetics under BC toward later stationary = 16 mg/L) and changed bacterial growth kinetics under BC toward later stationary phases in both species, including in isolates without QACs tolerance genes. In conclusion, Enterococcus are susceptible to in-use QACs concentrations and rarely carry QACs tolerance genes. However, their potential gene exchange with different microbiota, the decreased susceptibility to QACs under specific environmental conditions, and the presence of subinhibitory QACs concentrations in various settings may contribute to the selection of particular strains and, thus, require a One Health strategy to maintain QACs effectiveness.

Idioma: Inglês

Tipo (Avaliação Docente): Científica

Nº de páginas: 18