Molecular characterization of hospital-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains in pediatric outbreaks using variable tandem repeat analysis with spa and ClfB typing

Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2011 Feb;69(2):213-7. doi: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2010.08.015.

Abstract

To analyze 67 clinical methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated from pediatric hospital infections, we used multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat DNA sequence-based techniques, targeting the protein A polymorphic X region and the clumping factor B complete R domain. We define a "clfB similarity score" and then compare the double loci analysis of closely related MRSA isolates with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). We found an endemic clone (MLST-ST8, spa-t008, SCCmecIV, ClfB lineage 1) able to originate 3 possible outbreaks and a second clone (MLST-ST152, spa-t355, SCCmecV, ClfB lineage 4) responsible for limited cases of MRSA infections, indicating that the combination of spa and clfB-lineage typing is useful to trace MRSA pediatric outbreaks.

MeSH terms

  • Adhesins, Bacterial / genetics
  • Bacterial Typing Techniques
  • Cross Infection / epidemiology*
  • Cross Infection / microbiology*
  • Disease Outbreaks*
  • Humans
  • Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / genetics*
  • Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / isolation & purification*
  • Minisatellite Repeats / genetics
  • Multilocus Sequence Typing
  • Staphylococcal Infections / epidemiology*
  • Staphylococcal Infections / microbiology*
  • Staphylococcal Protein A / genetics

Substances

  • Adhesins, Bacterial
  • Staphylococcal Protein A
  • clfB protein, Staphylococcus aureus