Vershinin, A.E., Kolodzhieva, V.V., Ermolenko, E.I., Grabovskaya, K.B., Klimovich, B.V., Suvorov, A.N., Bondarenko, V.M.

Genetic identification as method of detection of pathogenic and symbiotic strains of enterococci

Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow; Research Institute of Experi­mental Medicine, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Comparative study of 97 cultures of enterococci, including reference highly virulent strain Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 259212, 35 clinical isolates of E.faecium, 58 isolates of E.faecalis, and 3 probiotic strains of E.faecium: Linex (Lek company, Slovenia), SF68 (Bifiform, Denmark), and L3 (Avena, Russia). Thirteen of 93 cultures were isolated from patients treated with probiotic Linex, containing E.faecium (Linex) bacterium. Comparative analysis of cultures on the presence of 8 genes determining virulence (esp, asa1, efaA, cylA, cylM, gelE, sprE, and fsrB) was performed using polymerase chain reaction and testing with antibiotics. It was established that in some cases clinical cultures of enterococci used for analysis carried genes of pathogenicity and were not related to E.faecium (Linex) strain included in composition of the probiotic drug.
Zh. Mikrobiol. (Moscow), 2008, No. 5, P. 83—87