IN SILICO CHARACTERIZATION OF PLASMID-MEDIATED ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE IN STREPTOCOCCUS

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a significant issue of global health concern that causes significant deaths around the world. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics are the main causes of the rapid development of AMR. Global estimates suggest that about 4.95 million AMR-related deaths occurred in 2019 and that the number is expected to increase to 10 million deaths per year by 2050 unless effective mitigation measures are taken. The problem of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) pathogens is becoming a major concern in such countries as Pakistan. Earlier research has mainly been conducted on phenotypic expression of antimicrobial resistance and the mechanisms like horizontal gene transfer, but detailed data on the expression of individual resistance genes is still scarce. The species of Streptococcus cause a great variety of infections in humans and animals some of which may be life-threatening. The genes on plasmids can easily mediate resistance in these bacteria and hence, they can be easily spread. This paper had the purpose of analyzing the acquired antimicrobial resistance genes in the plasmids of the bacterium, *Streptococcus, using bioinformatics tools and predicting the resistance phenotypes based on functional analysis. Pathogenic species of streptococci were examined and a total of 34 plasmids were analyzed. The acquired AMR genes were identified by the ResFinder 3.0 database, after which the results were confirmed by the KmerResistance database using the query coverage scoring. To determine levels of resistance, the potential multiple antibiotic resistance (p-MAR) index was determined. In total, 16 AMR genes were found in 10 antibiotic classes, such as aac(6')-aph(2'')-cat, catA1, cfr, erm, and tet variants. Such results offer valuable information on plasmid-mediated resistance and can be used to develop new treatment approaches to address the growing multidrug resistance.