| Farah Sabouni | 1 Article |
<b>Objectives</b><br/>
The clinical importance of <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> (<i>S. aureus</i>) is attributed to notable virulence factors, surface proteins, toxins, and enzymes as well as the rapid development of drug resistance. The aim of this study was to compare the occurrence of virulence factors produced by <i>S. aureus</i> strains isolated from children in an Iranian referral children's hospital.<br/><b>Methods</b><br/>
The presence of genes encoding for the enterotoxins A (<i>sea</i>), B (<i>seb</i>), C (<i>sec</i>), D (<i>sed</i>), TSST-1 (<i>tsst</i>), exfoliative toxin A (<i>eta</i>), and exfoliative toxin B (<i>etb</i>) were detected by Multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using specific primers. In addition, the standardized Kirby-Bauer disc-diffusion method was performed on Mueller-Hinton agar.<br/><b>Results</b><br/>
In total, 133 <i>S. aureus</i> isolates were obtained from different patients. Of these <i>S. aureus</i> isolates, 64 (48%) were methicillin-resistant <i>S. aureus</i> (MRSA), and all of these tested positive for the <i>mecA</i> gene. Regarding the classical enterotoxin genes, <i>sea</i> gene (40.6%) was the most prevalent followed by <i>seb</i> (19.6%), <i>tsst</i> (12.8%), <i>eta</i> (11.3%), <i>etb</i> (9%), <i>sed</i> (4.5%), and <i>sec</i> (3%). Among methicillin-susceptible <i>S. aureus</i> (MSSA) isolates, <i>seb</i> and <i>tsst</i> were the more prevalent toxins in comparison with MRSA isolates (<i>p</i> < 0.05), while the frequency of <i>sea</i>, <i>sed</i>, <i>eta</i>, and <i>etb</i> genes were higher among MRSA isolates (<i>p</i> > 0.05).<br/><b>Conclusion</b><br/>
In our study enterotoxin A was produced by 40.6% of the isolates (48% from MRSA and 33% from MSSA isolates) which was higher than in previous reports. According to our results, strict hygiene and preventative measures during food processing are highly recommended.
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