Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Pharmacy - Department of Microbiology and Immunology

New delhi metallo-Ý-lactamase (NDM-1) is a recently discovered novel plasmid-borne MBL enzyme, capable of hydrolyzing a broad range of antibiotics including the carbapenem antibiotics that are the mainstay for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. The goal of this work was to detect the presence of genes coding for this enzyme in local isolates from some Egyptian health settings. A total of 235 Gram-negative clinical isolates recovered from different sites of infections were collected and identified by proper microscopic and biochemical methods. Susceptibilities of all isolates were tested against 23 antimicrobials of different classes using disc diffusion technique, where 63 isolates of 235 total isolates were shown to be multi-drug resistant. Multi-drug resistant isolates were tested for the presence of the ESBLs and for the presence of MBLs and othere carpabenamases by MIC determination against specific antibiotics as well as several phenotypic tests. ERIC typing was used to classify the isolates into related groups.Polymerase chain reaction was used to confirm the presence of bla NDM-1 gene in the phenotypically positive isolates using a set of species-specific in addition to a novel universal primer. Sequencing was done on several isolates and the BLAST results showed high similarities to bla NDM-1 sequences previously identified in pakistan and cuba suggesting the origin of the isolates. Antibiotic resistance will always represent a major challenge to health care policies worldwide

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