DETECTION AND SEQUENCE EVALUATION OF UPAH GENE AMONG UROPATHOGENIC ESCHERICHIA COLI ISOLATED FROM URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS AS A NEW VACCINE CANDIDATE

Background and Aim:Urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) are among the most common infections worldwide. Increasing rate of antibiotic resistance among the isolates will make treatment of these infections ever more complicated and costly. Therefore, there is a need for an efficacious vaccine against UTI. UPEC has several types of autotransporter proteins such as upaH that play important roles in pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated the presence of upaH gene in UPEC collected from patients with UTI.Methods:A total of 100 UPEC isolates were collected from hospitalized patients in Tehran, Iran. Bacterial identification was performed by biochemical tests. PCR amplification of upaH gene was performed by specific primers. The PCR products of 10 isolates were purified from the agarose gel and were subjected to sequencing. Then, the sequences of these genes were compared with the genes deposited in GenBank and Expasy.Results:The upaH gene was amplified in 89% of the UPEC isolates tested. Comparison of the upaH sequences from our UPEC isolates with sequences of upaH gene in the GenBank showed significant homology (> 98%) that indicated the conserved nature of this gene among the UPEC isolates.Conclusion:Our results in agreement with other studies confirmed the conservation of upaH gene among UPEC isolates. Thus, upaH gene could be an ideal vaccine candidate for prevention of UTI caused by UPEC. Expression of recombinant UpaH protein and evaluation of the immune responses against this vaccine candidate in vivo and in vitro is under study.

Keywords:

Urinary tract infection , UPEC , Vaccine candidate , UpaH