RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The emergence of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii as a nosocomial pathogen is one of the major public health problems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of an efflux pump gene adeJ for the multidrug resistance of A. baumannii clinical isolates.METHODS: Two groups (MDRAB and SAB) of A. baumannii clinical isolates were studied. The SAB group consisted of strains that did not meet the criteria of MDRAB and were susceptible to more categories of antibiotics than MDRAB. Antimicrobial susceptibility results obtained by VITEKII system were used in data analysis and bacterial group allocation. We performed real-time reverse transcription PCR to determine relative expression of adeJ. We compared relative expression of adeJ in comparison groups by considering two viewpoints: i) MDRAB and SAB groups and ii) susceptible and non-susceptible groups for each antibiotic used in this study.RESULTS: The mean value of relative expression of adeJ of MDRAB and SAB groups was 1.4 and 0.92, respectively, and showed significant difference (P=0.002). The mean values of relative expression of adeJ of susceptible and non-susceptible groups to the antibiotics cefepime, ceftazidime, ciprofloxacin, imipenem, meropenem, tigecycline, piperacillin/tazobactam, ticarcillin/clavulanic acid, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, piperacillin, and gentamicin showed statistically significant differences.CONCLUSION: The overexpression of adeIJK might contribute to the multi-drug resistance in A. baumannii clinical isolates. Further, the overexpression of adeIJK might be one of the factors contributing to the resistance to numerous antibiotics.