The relative gene transfer was calculated by dividing the % value of each treatment by the % value for the standard. Here transconjugants serve as standard. Data were analyzed using Graph Pad InStat-3 and expressed as mean ± standard
deviation (SD) of three independent experiment. The continuous variables were tested with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Dunnett’s test. Values < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Re-identification of all of the clinical isolates were done and found to be of A. baumannii, C. braakii, E. coli, P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae. A. baumannii and C. braakii were positive for both qnrA and qnrB gene, whereas E. coli, P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae were positive for qnrB gene and none of the clinical isolates harbored qnrS ( Fig. 1). As shown in the Table 1, Potentox emerged as the most active antibacterial against A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa, E. coli and K. pneumoniae with MIC values 8 μg/ml. Selleck GW572016 The corresponding MIC for C. braakii was 16 μg/ml. The imipenem MIC values for A. baumannii and K. pneumoniae were 256 μg/ml each; 64 μg/ml for P. aeruginosa and C. braakii and 32 μg/ml for E. coli. The meropenem MIC values for A. baumannii, and K. pneumoniae were 128 μg/ml
each and 32 μg/ml for C. braakii and P. aeruginosa whereas 16 μg/ml for E. coli. For the other comparator drugs, the overall MIC values ranged from 32 to 1024 μg/ml. On the other hands, P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae found to be resistant to cefoperazone + sulbactam, amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid and levofloxacin; A. baumannii also showed resistant to amoxicillin plus clavulanic Selleck PLX-4720 acid. There was a significant (p < 0.01) reduction in the MIC values of Potentox when compared
with the other comparator antibacterial agents ( Table 2). The zones of inhibition were calculated in millimeter for all strains and presented in the Table 3. Potentox was found to be sensitive against all clinical isolates as evident by zone of inhibition values, 23.5 ± 1.2, 20.8 ± 2.8, 25.8 ± 3.0, 27.2 ± 2.8, 23.2 ± 2.5 for A. baumannii, C. braakii, P. aeruginosa, E. coli and K. pneumoniae, respectively. Imipenem was found to be sensitive only against E. coli, check whereas meropenem was sensitive against P. aeruginosa and E. coli. Piperacillin plus tazobactam and cefoperazone plus sulbactam exhibited sensitivity toward C. braakii and E. coli. Cefepime was found to be sensitive only against C. braakii. Other tested drugs including amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid, moxifloxacin, levofloxacin and amikacin were observed to be resistant against all of the clinical isolates. The statistical analysis of AST values of Potentox vs other comparator drugs are shown in Table 4. Following conjugation, transconjugants were selected on MacConkey agar plates containing sodium azide and streptomycin. Analysis of transconjugants through PCR confirmed that transconjugants carrying the same gene as donor (Fig. 2).