Resistance Profiles and Biological Characteristics of Rifampicin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Small-Colony Variants

Xiangkuo Zheng,1,* Renchi Fang,2,* Chong Wang,3 Xuebin Tian,4 Jie Lin,1 Weiliang Zeng,4 Tieli Zhou,1 Chunquan Xu1 1Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325035, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Laboratory Medicine, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, 266000, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Laboratory Medicine and Life Sciences, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325035, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Chunquan Xu; Tieli ZhouDepartment of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325000, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-577-5557-9725; +86-577-8668-9885Email 417242374@qq.com; wyztli@163.comBackground: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a major contributor to nosocomial and community-acquired infections. S. aureus small colony variants (SCVs) which changed in relevant phenotype have made more limited and difficult for therapeutic options against S. aureus infections increasingly. Rifampicin is considered as the “last-resort” antibiotic against S. aureus. Our study investigated resistance profiles and biological characteristics of rifampicin-resistant S. aureus SCVs.Methods: We collected S. aureus SCVs that were selected from 41 rifampicin-resistant clinical isolates. Then, biological characteristics, resistance spectrum, and rifampicin resistance mechanisms of tested S. aureus SCVs and corresponding parental strains were investigated by classic microbiological methods, agar dilution method, polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Moreover, the fitness cost of S. aureus SCVs, including growth, biofilm formation ability, and virulence profile, was also determined b