ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Research Article | Open Access
Fiola Elsabillah Amandani1, Sri Amelia2 , Nurfida Khairina Arrasyid3,
Fera Wahyuni4 and Ridwan Balatif1
1Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, North Sumatra, 20155, Indonesia.
2Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, North Sumatra, 20155, Indonesia.
3Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, North Sumatra, 20155, Indonesia.
4Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, North Sumatra, 20155, Indonesia.
Article Number: 9657 | © The Author(s). 2025
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2025;19(1):453-458. https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.19.1.35
Received: 22 June 2024 | Accepted: 28 January 2025 | Published online: 27 February 2025
Issue online: March 2025
Abstract

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is resistant to β-lactam antibiotics owing to the presence of mecA and mecC resistance genes. Resistance genes in MRSA are carried by a genetic component named staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec). The mecC gene showed 63% similarity with the mecA gene. This resulted in the mecC gene not being detected by routine PCR examination, which specifically detects mecA. Data regarding the epidemiology of molecular detection of the mecC gene in Indonesia are still very limited, especially in North Sumatra Province. This study aimed to characterize MRSA resistance genes in a tertiary hospital in Medan, North Sumatra. Clinical samples of the infection were collected and identified as MRSA using the VITEK-2 compact device. A total of 80 samples from bacteremia patients in our hospital were used in this research. The detection of resistance genes is performed using conventional Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Visualization of the presence of genes was performed using electrophoresis. The mec gene was detected in 79 MRSA samples (98.75%). A total of 63 samples carried two resistance genes, mecA and mecC (78.75%), 15 samples carried only mecC (18.75%), one sample carried only mecA, and only one sample carried neither mecA nor mecC. The finding of the mecC gene is a cause for concern because it cannot be detected via routine PCR. This study showed that the majority of MRSA bacteria carry a mixture of mecA and mecC genes.

Keywords

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Molecular Epidemiology, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Tertiary Hospital

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© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.