Lateral Flow Immunoassay for the Detection of Panton-Valentine Leukocidin in Staphylococcus aureus From Skin and Soft Tissue Infections in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

IntroductionPanton Valentine leukocidin (PVL) is a virulence factor which is associated with methicillin sensitive and resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA/MRSA) causing skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI). This study aimed to evaluate a novel lateral flow immunoassay (LFI) for PVL detection in S. aureus cultures and to describe their genotypic characterization.MethodsThe study was carried out from January-August 2020 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. S. aureus isolates associated with SSTI were tested for PVL detection using LFI. DNA microarray-based assays were used for molecular characterization including detection of pvl genes.ResultsOne-hundred thirty-five patients with a clinical diagnosis of SSTIs were recruited. Sixty-six patients received antibiotics, mostly beta lactams (n=36) and topical fusidic acid (n=15). One-hundred twenty-nine isolates (MRSA: n=43; MSSA: n=86) were tested by LFI and DNA microarrays. All 76 (58.9%) isolates which were unambiguously negative for the PVL in LFI were negative for pvl genes using the DNA microarray. All the LFI PVL positive isolates (n=53) had pvl genes detected. This translates into 100% each for sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for the LFI. The LFI typically takes about 15 min inclusive of a 10 min incubation period. Predominant S. aureus clonal complexes (CC) were CC30 (n=18), CC22 (n=13), CC5 (n=12), CC1 (n=11), CC152 (n=8), CC15 (n=7); CC97 (n=7); CC8 and CC20 (n=6 each). Among MRSA, the proportion of pvl-positives (35/43; 81%) was higher than among MSSA (n/N=18/86; 21%). The fusidic acid resistance gene fusC was detected in 14 MRSA (33%) compared to 8 MSSA (9%). A co-carriage of fusC and pvl genes was present in 7 MRSA and in one MSSA.ConclusionLFI shows excellent diagnostic accuracy indices for rapid identification of PVL in MSSA/MRSA in a setting with high prevalence of pvl+ve strains. The high occurrence of pvl and fusC genes in MRSA strains causing SSTI is of concern and needs constant surveillance.

The Roles of Optogenetics and Technology in Neurobiology: A Review

“…Researchers are also developing more precise ( Adesnik and Abdeladim, 2021 ) and less invasive optogenetic devices, such as SOUL ( Gong et al, 2020 ). At the same time, optogenetics has strong compatibility, it can be used to study a variety of diseases, such as diabetes ( Li et al, 2021 ), inflammation ( Baumschlager and Khammash, 2021 ; Bhat et al, 2021 ; Dos Santos et al, 2021 ; Jamaluddin et al, 2021 ; Michoud et al, 2021 ; Santos et al, 2021 ; Senok et al, 2021 ), tumors ( Kim et al, 2017 ; Adampourezare et al, 2021 ; Esmaeili et al, 2022 ), depression ( Hare et al, 2019 ), epilepsy ( Zhang and Wang, 2021 ) and so on. And in 2020, 45 laboratories around the world integrated all optogenetics resources and create an optogenetics experimental database ( Tremblay et al, 2020 ).…”

Sequence Analysis of Novel Staphylococcus aureus Lineages from Wild and Captive Macaques

“…Five of the macaque-associated clonal complexes—including CC2990 (which was also found in humans [ 30 , 31 , 32 ])—harboured a pathogenicity island carrying edinB and etD2 / etE (ST2990, ST7687, ST7690, ST7749, and ST7750). This is a remarkably high rate.…”

“…However, the presence of mecC might suggest an origin in small, wild mammals. ST2867 was found in humans from the Middle East [ 32 ] and France (SAMEA698399). ST2970 (SAMEA3448974) originated from Thailand, i.e., from the geographical range of macaques, but unfortunately no metadata are provided for that sequence.…”

“…Some of these strains clustered with widespread S. aureus CCs are found in humans (CC1, CC5, CC8, CC9, CC15, CC30, CC152, and CC188). The study on Nepalese Rhesus and Assam macaques ( Macaca assamensis ) [ 20 ] also identified CC15, CC96, and CC2990 MSSA, i.e., strains from lineages that have been observed in humans [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ].…”

Panton–Valentine leucocidin-producing Staphylococcus aureus: a clinical review

“…For use in low-and middle-income countries, there are now lateral flow assays that provide near real-time results from cultures of SAs, albeit with reduced sensitivity compared with molecular diagnostics; however, these may prove pragmatic in services where molecular diagnostics are inadequate. 39…”