Antimicrobial Susceptibility, Serotyping, and Molecular Charac-terization of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Listeria monocyto-genes Isolated from Pregnant Women with a History of Abortion

Background: Listeria monocytogenes show high mortality among pregnant women and newborns. This study aimed to detect L. monocytogenes in pregnant women with a history of abortion and assess the serotypes, antibiotic susceptibility patterns, and its resistance genes. Methods: Overall, 400 vaginal swabs were taken from pregnant women with a history of abortion in the past few years in a tertiary care hospital in Tehran, Iran, during 2015-2018. Antibiotics susceptibility to a panel of 10 antibiot-ics was determined using the standard disk diffusion method and the isolates serotyped by the agglutination method. The antimicrobial-resistant isolates were also screened for the presence of tetM, ermB and dfrD genes by PCR. Results: Overall, 22 L. monocytogenes isolates were identified. High rates of resistance were observed for trimethoprim (50%; n=11), sulphamethoxazole (50%; n=11), tetracycline (45.45%; n=10) and gentamicin (36.36%; n=8). From 22 L. monocytogenes isolates, 13 (59.10 %), 5 (22.73%), 3 (13.63%) and 1 (4.54%) belonged to serotypes 4b, 1/2a, 1/2b, and 3c, respectively. The genetic determinant tetM was detected in 70% of the tetracycline-resistant isolates. Out of 11 trimethoprim-resistant isolates, 27.27% isolates contained dfrD. Moreover, the ermB gene was found in 83.33% of the erythromycin-resistant isolates. Conclusion: Ampicillin and partly penicillin consider to be suitable antimicrobial agents to treat human listeriosis. Moreover, due to resistance against many antibiotics, it is necessary to continue monitoring and managing antimicro-bial resistance.