Molecular epidemiology of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from three major hospitals in Jordan.

BACKGROUND: In the last decade, incidences of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii have been increasingly reported worldwide. Consequently, A. baumannii was included in the World Health Organization's new list of critical pathogens, for which new drugs are desperately needed. The objective of this research was to study the molecular epidemiology and antimicrobial susceptibility of clinical carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii isolated from Jordanian hospitals. METHODS: A total of 78 A. baumannii and 8 Acinetobacter spp. isolates were collected from three major hospitals in Jordan during 2018. Disc diffusion and microdilution methods were used to test their susceptibility against 19 antimicrobial agents. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was performed using the Pasteur scheme, followed by eBURST analysis for all isolates. PCR was used to detect ß-lactam resistance genes, blaOXA-23-like , blaOXA-51-like , and blaNDM-1 . RESULTS: Of the 86 tested isolates, 78 (90.6%) exhibited resistance to carbapenems, whereas no resistance was recorded to tigecycline or polymyxins. Based on the resistance profiles, 10.4% and 84.8% of isolates were classified into multidrug resistant (MDR) or extensively drug resistant (XDR), respectively. The most prevalent carbapenems resistance genes amongst isolates were blaOXA-51-Like (89.5%), followed by blaOXA-23-Like (88.3%) and blaNDM-1 (10.4%). MLST revealed the presence of 19 sequence types (STs), belonging to eight different international complexes. The most commonly detected clonal complex (CC) was CC2, representing 64% of all typed isolates. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to report the clonal diversity of A. baumannii isolates in Jordan. A high incidence of carbapenem resistance was detected in the isolates investigated. In addition, our findings provided evidence for the widespread of blaOXA-23-like harbouring carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii and belonging to CC2. The number of XDR isolates identified in this study is alarming. Thus, periodic surveillance and molecular epidemiological studies of resistance factors are important to improve treatment outcomes and prevent the spread of A. baumannii infections.

Association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the ESR2 and FSHR genes with poor ovarian response in infertile Jordanian women.

OBJECTIVE: Poor ovarian response (POR) refers to a subnormal follicular response that leads to a decrease in the quality and quantity of the eggs retrieved after ovarian stimulation during assisted reproductive treatment (ART). The present study investigated the associations of multiple variants of the estrogen receptor 2 (ESR2) and follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) genes with POR in infertile Jordanian women undergoing ART. METHODS: Four polymorphisms, namely ESR2 rs1256049, ESR2 rs4986938, FSHR rs6165, and FSHR rs6166, were investigated in 60 infertile Jordanian women undergoing ART (the case group) and 60 age-matched fertile women (the control group), with a mean age of 33.60±6.34 years. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected by restriction fragment length polymorphism and then validated using Sanger sequencing. RESULTS: The p-value of the difference between the case and control groups regarding FSHR rs6166 was very close to 0.05 (p=0.054). However, no significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of the other three SNPs, namely ESR2 rs1256049, ESR2 rs4986938, and FSHR rs6165 (p=0.561, p=0.433, and p=0.696, respectively). CONCLUSION: The association between FSHR rs6166 and POR was not statistically meaningful in the present study, but the near-significant result of this experiment suggests that statistical significance might be found in a future study with a larger number of patients.

Impact of COVID-19 and other viruses on reproductive health.

Male infertility is linked to some viral infections including human papillomavirus (HPV), herpes simplex viruses (HSV) and human immunodeficiency viruses (HIVs). Almost nothing is known about severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) effect on fertility. The possible risk factors of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection on fertility comes from the abundance of angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-2 (ACE2), receptor entry of the virus, on testes, a reduction in important sex hormone ratios and COVID-19-associated fever. Recent studies have shown a gender difference for COVID-19 rates and comorbidity. In this review, we will discuss the potential effect of COVID-19 on male fertility and talk about what needs to be done by the scientific community to tackle our limited understanding of the disease. On the other side, we will focus on what is known so far about the risk of COVID-19 on pregnancy, neonatal health and the vertical transfer of the virus between mothers and their neonates. Finally, because reproduction is a human right and infertility is considered a health disease, we will discuss how assisted reproductive clinics can cope with the pandemic and what guidelines they should follow to minimise the risk of viral transmission.