Genetic Analysis of Candida glabrata from Candiduric Patients Using Microsatellite Length Polymorphism, Antifungal Susceptibility, and Enzymatic Profiles

Candida glabrata is the second agent of candiduria with increased resistance to antifungals. Microsatellite length polymorphism (MLP) is one of the genotyping techniques used in the epidemiological investigation to improve clinical management.

We aimed to detect different genotypes of C. glabrata isolates using six microsatellite markers and the MLP technique. Moreover, our genotypes’ association with other countries’ genotypes was illustrated using a minimum spanning tree. We investigated in vitro antifungal susceptibility and enzymatic activity profiles of the isolates.

Six microsatellite markers were amplified using multiplex-PCR for 22 C. glabrata strains isolated from urine in pediatric patients admitted to the Abuzar Children’s Hospital in Ahvaz, Iran. The PCR products were presented for fragment analysis, and the size of the alleles was determined. Antifungal susceptibility tests and extracellular enzyme activities were also performed.

Nineteen multilocus genotypes were detected so that 22.7% of the strains had identical genotypes. The isolates were wildtype for amphotericin B (0.0625 - 2µg/mL), itraconazole (0.125 - 2µg/mL), and voriconazole (0.0078 - 0.00625µg/mL). All the isolates were sensitive to fluconazole at the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) range (0.0312 - 16 µg/mL), and three of them were resistant to caspofungin (MIC ≥ 0.5 µg/mL). Moreover, 72.7 and 68.2% of the isolates had no phospholipase and esterase activities. The highest potency of enzymatic activity was obtained in hemolysin and proteinase enzymes. A high genetic diversity (19 genotypes of the 22 isolates) existed among the urinaryC. glabrata isolates. Based on theminimum spanning tree, two clusters of our genotypes were related toC. glabratagenotypes in a previous study in Iran, and the third cluster was entirely connected with Chinese genotypes.

Most of the isolates were the non-wild type for posaconazole but were rarely resistant to other antifungals. Hemolysin and proteinase secreted as the main virulence factors among the urinary C. glabrata isolates.