Plasmid profile analysis of multidrug resistant E. coli isolated from UTI patients of Nagpur City, India

Infections caused by Escherichia coli (E. coli) have become a significant worldwide public health problem with India being no exception. Furthermore, the situation is worsening due to advent of increased antibiotic resistance due to the evolution of multi-resistant antibiotic plasmid genes. Extended Spectrum B-lactmases (ESBLs) are plasmid mediated and these enzyme producing organisms exhibit co resistance to many other classes of antibiotics. The wide spread presence of drug resistant E. coli and other pathogens in our environment necessitates regular monitoring of antibiotics susceptibility trends in the clinical isolates obtained from different regions to provide the basis for developing National and International prescription programs that can be used for delineating guidelines to maintain the desired effectiveness of antibiotics. In the present study, out of 135 isolates, 76 isolates were of E.coli. These isolates were tested for antibiotic resistance and plasmid profiles. The results revealed that more than 50% of the isolates exhibited multi-drug resistance. Out of 76 E.coli isolates, 40(52.6%) were found to possess plasmids. Some isolates possess single sized plasmid while other had multiple plasmids with different size ranged from 2.3 kb to 26 kb, very high antibiotic resistance was detected from isolates possessing high molecular weight plasmids (23kb). The studies show good prospects for further research in the same area to explore and assign definite cause for antibiotic resistance and multi drug resistance.