Staphylococcus aureus ST121: A globally disseminated hypervirulent clone.

Staphylococcus aureus ST121: A globally disseminated hypervirulent clone.
J Med Microbiol. 2015 Oct 6;
Authors: Rao Q, Shang W, Hu X, Rao X
Abstract
Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of bacterial infections in hospitals and communities worldwide. With the development of typing methods, several pandemic clones have been well-characterized, including the extensively spreading hospital-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus (HA-MRSA) clone ST239 and the emerging hypervirulent community-associated (CA) MRSA clone USA300. The multilocus sequence typing method was set up based on seven housekeeping genes; S. aureus groups were defined by the sharing of alleles at ≥ 5 of the 7 loci. In many cases, the predicted founder of a group would also be the most prevalent ST within the group. As a predicted founder of major S. aureus groups, approximately 90% of ST121 strains are methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA). The majority of ST121 strains carry accessory gene regulator type IV, whereas staphylococcal protein A gene types for ST121 are exceptionally diverse. More than 90% of S. aureus ST121 strains have Panton-Valentine leucocidin; other enterotoxins, hemolysins, leukocidins, and exfoliative toxins also contribute to the high virulence of ST121 strains. The patients suffered S. aureus ST121 infections often need longer hospitalisation and prolonged antimicrobial therapy. In this review, we tried to summarize the epidemiology o...

Source: Journal of Medical Microbiology - October 6, 2015 Category: Microbiology Authors: Rao Q, Shang W, Hu X, Rao X Tags: J Med Microbiol Source Type: research