Evaluation of antibiotic resistance and adhesion properties of Enterococcus spp. isolated from children with dental caries

This study was carried out to isolate and diagnose enterococcal bacteria from children with dental caries and gingivitis, to determine the dominant species and to determine some virulence factors of these bacteria and their effects on drug susceptibility to some antimicrobials. The study followed that one of the most common types of infections caused by this genus was Enterococcus faecalis, followed by E. faecium, E. gallinarium and E. avium, respectively. The results showed that there was no relationship between the infection and the type of patient, the age of the patients and the gender of the patients. In this study, inferences were made about some characteristics of enterococci isolates, which are virulence factors that play an important role in its pathogenesis. The ability of these isolates to produce the hemolytic enzyme (hemolysin) was detected as gamma-type enzyme in most of the isolates, followed by beta and alpha of the isolates. Antibiotic diffusion method was used to examine the drug susceptibility of enterococcal isolates (12) to antibacterial. They were individually sensitive to a mixture of nalidixic acid (79.5%), ciprofloxacin, and amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid (61.4%). The isolates differed in their susceptibility rates to other antibacterials such as Rifadin (36.4%), ampicillin (27.3%), metaprim triple (22.7%) and vancomycin (11.4%). While the susceptibility of the isolates to the antimicrobials used was not significantly affected by their ability to produce hemolytic enzymes and agglutinate red blood cells, there were significant differences between gelatinase production and anti-metaprime (P) susceptibility, beta-lactase production and anti-penicillin susceptibility, biofilm-forming ability and susceptibility to this antigen found. The anti-penicillin susceptibilities of the isolates, which have the ability to attach to epithelial cells and have a capsular structure, differed significantly.