Ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin, and aminoglycosides stimulate genetic and phenotypic changes in uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains

ABSTRACT

Antibiotic therapy and its consequences in bacterial and human aspects are widely investigated. Despite this, the emergence of new multidrug resistant bacteria is still a current problem. The scope of our work included the observation of changes among uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains after the treatment with a subinhibitory concentration of different antibiotics. The sensitive strains with or without virulence factors were incubated with amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, gentamycin, or tobramycin. After each passage, the E. coli derivatives were compared to their wild types based on their susceptibility profiles, virulence genes, biofilm formations and the fingerprint profiles of PCR products amplified with using the (N)(6)(CGG)(4) primer. It turned out that antibiotics caused significant changes in the repertoire of bacterial virulence and biofilm formation, corresponding to acquired cross-resistance. The genomic changes among the studied bacteria were reflected in the changed profiles of the CGG-PCR products. In conclusion, the inappropriate application of antibiotics may cause a rapid rise of Multidrug Resistant (MDR) strains and give bacteria a chance to modulate their own pathogenicity. This phenomenon has been easily observed among uropathogenic E. coli strains and it is one of the main reasons for recurrent infections of the urinary tract.

KEYWORDS:

• Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Strains (UPEC)
• antibiotics
• virulence factor genes
• biofilm

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

For this type of study, formal consent is not required. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Science Centre research grant no. NCN 2011/01/D/NZ7/00107. This work was additionally supported under the program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the name “Regional Excellence Initiative in 2019-2022 project number: 024/RID/2018/19, financing amount: 11.999.000,00 PLN.