Antibiotic Resistance and Biofilm Formation in Enterococcus spp. Isolated from Urinary Tract Infections

Background: A urinary tract infection (UTI) resulting from multidrug-resistant (MDR) enterococci is a common disease with few therapeutic options. About 15% of urinary tract infections are caused by biofilm-producing Enterococcus spp. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the MDR enterococci associated with UTIs and assess their potential to produce biofilms. Methods: Thirty Enterococcus isolates were obtained from urine samples collected from UTI patients at King Abdulaziz Specialist Hospital in Taif, Saudi Arabia. The antimicrobial resistance profiles of the isolates were evaluated using disk diffusion techniques against 15 antimicrobial agents. Two techniques, Congo red agar (CRA) and a microtiter plate (MTP), were used to assess the potential of the isolates to produce biofilms. The enterococcal isolates were screened for biofilm-related genes, esp; ebpA; and ebpB, using the PCR method. Results: The molecular identification of the collected bacteria revealed the presence of 73.3% Enterococcus faecalis and 26.6% Enterococcus faecium. The antibiotic susceptibility test revealed that all the tested Enterococcus spp. were resistant to all antimicrobials except for linezolid and tigecycline. Additionally, by employing the CRA and MTP techniques, 76.6% and 100% of the Enterococcus isolates were able to generate biofilms, respectively. In terms of the association between the antibiotic resistance and biofilm’s formation, it was observed that isolates capable of creating strong biofilms were extremely resistant to most of the antibiotics tested. The obtained data showed that all the tested isolates had biofilm-encoding genes. Conclusions: Our research revealed that the biofilm-producing enterococci bacteria that causes urinary tract infections were resistant to antibiotics. Therefore, it is necessary to seek other pharmacological treatments if antibiotic medicine fails.