Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Multiple-Resistant Commensal Escherichia Coli from Nigerian Children: Potential Opportunistic Pathogens

Oluwatoyin A Igbeneghu , Adebayo Lamikanra

Department of Pharmaceutics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria;

For correspondence:- Oluwatoyin Igbeneghu Email: oaigbene@oauife.edu.ng Tel:+2348056307805

Received: 7 March 2013 Accepted: 9 January 2014 Published: 24 March 2014

Citation: Igbeneghu OA, Lamikanra A. Multiple-Resistant Commensal Escherichia Coli from Nigerian Children: Potential Opportunistic Pathogens. Trop J Pharm Res 2014; 13(3):423-428 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v13i3.17

© 2014 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: The antimicrobial susceptibility and virulence traits of 150 strains of Escherichia coli characterized as commensals recovered from faecal samples from pre-school age children in Ile-Ife, Nigeria were evaluated in order to determine their potentials for pathogenicity and their contribution to antibiotic resistance in the community.

Methods: The isolates were identified using conventional biochemical methods. The presence or absence of virulence traits was determined using phenotypic and genotypic (polymerase chain reaction) methods. Their susceptibility to antibiotics was determined using the disk diffusion method.

Results: Possession of virulence properties including encapsulation (89.3 %), haemolysin production (24.8 %) and colicinogenicity (11.3 %) was detected among the strains and susceptibility of the strains to multiple antibiotics showed that the strains were highly resistant to cefalothin (100 %), streptomycin (94.0 %), tetracycline (92.0 %), and trimethoprim (89.3 %) while resistance to the quinolones was low (3.3 - 14.0 %).

Conclusion: The possession of virulence properties by antibiotic resistant strains of commensal E. coli may enhance their potential as extraintestinal pathogens.

Keywords: Escherichia coli, Virulence traits, Haemolysin, Colicin, Capsule, Antibiotic resistance, Drug resistance