Drug resistance and adherence to human intestines of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli

Clinical isolates of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAggEC) were tested for their in vitro susceptibilities to 27 antimicrobial agents. Marked drug resistance was observed with sulfamethoxazole, ampicillin, and chloramphenicol in contrast to such antimicrobial agents as cefixime, sparfloxacin, and ciprofloxacin. One of the EAggEC strains carried a plasmid that conferred on its host resistance to ampicillin, tetracycline, sulfamethoxazole, streptomycin, and spectinomycin and an ability to adhere to child ileal villi or HeLa cells in the characteristic aggregative pattern. This plasmid also mediated D-mannose-resistant hemagglutinin production and bacterial clump formation (autoagglutination). The data demonstrate appearance of marked drug resistance and an intestine-adherence and drug-resistance plasmid in the newest category of diarrheagenic E. coli.