Distribution of Pathogenicity Islands among Escherichia coli Strains from Mansoura Universty Hospitals

Abstract This study was carried out to illustrate the pathogenic E. coli, that had pathogenicity islands (PAIs) containing genes with many virulence factors (VFs). Thirty (2.9%) E. coli strains were isolated from adults (18 female and 12 male) from 1020 positive cultures of all pathogens isolated from Mansoura University Hospitals through one year from January 2022 to January 2023. The age of patients ranged from 20–50 in 56.6% and above 50 years old in 43.3%. E. coli were isolated from urine 18 (60%), stool 6 (20%) and Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) 6 (20%). Among 30 E. coli isolates 25 were positive PAIs examined using PCR, 11 (36.6%) had PAI ˂ 4, 14 (46.6%) had PAI ≥ 4 and no PAIs were detected in 5 isolates. Among E. coli isolates, PAI IJ96 had the highest prevalence were found in 15 E. coli strains (60%), the second was PAI III₅₃₆ found in 14 (56%), PAI IICF073 13 (52%), PAI II₅₃₆ 2 (8%) both PAI I₅₃₆ and PAI ICFT073 were 4 (16%), while the lowest prevalence was PAI IV₅₃₆ 1 (4%) and PAI II J96 (0%) was not detected in this study. In conclusion, PAI IJ96 and PAI III₅₃₆ were the most frequent pathogenicity islands in this study and E.coli became more virulent and dangerous in the human health, especially infected with E. coli strains contains PAI IJ96.