Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles and Gene Characterization of Recovered from Facial Skin of Healthy Females in Shanghai, China.

Purpose: To explore antimicrobial resistance profiles and gene characterization of recovered from facial skin of healthy females in Shanghai, China.

Patients And Methods: In this study, we collected facial skin samples from 107 healthy females in Shanghai, China, and isolation was performed. The minimal inhibitory concentrations of 10 antibiotics were determined for the isolates using the agar dilution method. High-level mupirocin-resistant isolates were subjected to whole-genome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. A total of 94 un-duplicated isolates were obtained from 107 facial skin samples.

Results: Antimicrobial susceptibility tests revealed that 23.4% of the 94 isolates were resistant to oxacillin and positive for the gene, which could be cauterized as methicillin-resistant (MRSE). Resistance rates for erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, and gentamicin were 8.5%, 11.7%, 10.6%, 12.8%, and 1.1%, respectively. For mupirocin, the rates of low- and high-level resistance were 3.2% (3/94) and 11.7% (11/94), respectively. Resistance to vancomycin or linezolid was not observed. High-level mupirocin resistance in facial skin isolates is mediated by . WGS and SNP-based phylogenetic analyses revealed diverse phylogenies among the 11 -positive isolates. Additionally, various resistance and virulence genes were identified in -positive isolates. A new hybrid plasmid carrying genes was found in two isolates.

Conclusion: We observed a considerable level of antimicrobial resistance to several antibiotics and the prevalence of abundant and diverse resistance and virulence genes in the facial skin-origin isolates. This may pose a potential risk for both public health and infection.