R. RAGUNATHAN, M. SWATHIKA AND T. VAIDEKI
Abstract
The emergence of MDR (Multi Drug Resistant) pathogens leads to a serious threat for therapeutic inventions that are related to the treatment of Eye infections. In our investigation the eye infection causing pathogens Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus pneumoniae were obtained from a local eye hospital and maintained on blood agar plate at 4oC. The MDR pattern was studied using MHA (Muller Hinton Agar). Both the pathogens showed resistance against six antibiotics among twelve antibiotics tried. Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed resistance against Rifamycin (2µg/mL), Neomycin (30µg/mL), Methicillin (10µg/mL), Oxacillin (1µg/mL), Cefoxitin (30µg/mL) and Amoxicillin (10µg/mL). Streptococcus pneumoniae showed resistance against Vancomycin (10µg/mL), Nalidixic acid (30µg/mL), Methicillin (10µg/mL), Oxacillin (1µg/mL), Cefoxitin (30µg/mL) and Amoxicillin(10µg/mL). The molecular weight of the polysaccharides present in the cell wall of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was found to be 67KDa. This shows that the antibiotics were not able to destruct the cell wall of the pathogen effectively. The plasmid profiles of the MDR pathogens were also studied. The CTX-M (-lactamase) genes of the two pathogens were further amplified using RAPD PCR with primers that are complementary to MEF (A) and PBP2X for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus pneumoniae respectively. It showed the presence of CTX-M gene whose lengths were obtained as 1100 and 600 base pairs in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus pneumoniae respectively. The MDR pattern was confirmed using CTX-M gene amplification.