• Detection of hybrid uropathogenic/diarrheagenic Escherichia coli strains among uropathogenic E. coli isolates in clinical isolates of Khorramabad city
  • Fatemeh Bahrami Chegeni,1,* Somaieh Sabzali,2 Fatemeh Saleh,3 Atefeh mirderikvand,4
    1. Razi Herbal Medicine Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran
    2. Department of Biology, Faculty of basic sciences, Lorestan University. Khorramabad, Iran
    3. Razi Herbal Medicine Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran
    4. Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran


  • Introduction: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common bacterial diseases in humans. The most common etiological agent is Escherichia coli. There is evidence that some uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) isolates have diarrheal origins; therefore, in the present study, we investigated the presence of diarrheal markers among UPEC isolates.
  • Methods: A total of 100UPEC isolates were screened by multiplex¬-PCR for the presence of main diarrheagenic marker genes including pCVD for enteroaggregative E. coli, invF gene for the enteroinvasive E. coli, eaeA and hlyA for enterohemorrhagic E. coli, stla, stlb and lt for enterotoxigenic E. coli and escV for enteropathogenic E. coli
  • Results: pCVD, eaeA genes were found in17 and 8 isolates, respectively, while the other genes were not found. Therefore, 25% of UPEC strains were hybrid EAEC/UPEC
  • Conclusion: Results indicated that some diarrhea-causing E. coli isolates may also have the potential to cause urinary tract infections. Among these, the EAEC pathotype is more important than the other diarrheagenic E. coli pathotypes
  • Keywords: Urinary tract infection, Escherichia coli, diarrheagenic marker, uropathogenic E. coli