Article ID: JJID.2023.194
In the present study, 26 Staphylococcus aureus strains, including 16 methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and 10 methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA), which were collected from eight medical institutions in Chiba Prefecture that requested toxin gene analysis from 2015 to 2021, were analyzed. A total of 14 Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) positive strains were identified, including one of MSSA. PVL-positive strains were classified into seven types based on polymerase chain reaction-based open reading frame typing (POT). Of these, three POT types of MRSA strains were not previously reported, and one had been previously reported as PVL-negative. Some strains were positive for both PVL and toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1). One POT type was identified in both PVL-positive and PVL-negative strains. This is the first report on the regional spread of highly pathogenic S. aureus strains in children from multiple medical institutions based on the POT method. This method is useful for estimating the spread of toxin gene-carrying strains in the community because of its association with toxin genes. As the number of PVL-positive strains is increasing in Japan, it is important to analyze the isolates of severe S. aureus infections in children by combining toxin gene analysis and the POT method.
