Molecular Detection of virulence genes (rmpA2 , iuc & iroB) of hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae in clinical Isolates from patients in Khartoum State, Sudan

<b>Background: </b><i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> pathogens cause infection in immune -compromised patients and healthy individuals. Iron acquisition systems and regulator mucoid phenotype play an important role in the pathogenesis and virulence of <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i>. this study was aimed to investigate the prevalence of virulence genes <i>iuc,</i> <i>iroB</i> and r<i>mpA2</i> of hyper virulent <i> Klebsiella pneumoniae </i>(hykp) in clinical Isolates from patients in Khartoum. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study.<b> </b> <b>Methods</b>: A total of 95 <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> isolates were collected from different Hospitals in Khartoum state, these isolates were screened for hyper mucoviscosity phenotypically by string test. Antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed for all isolates to identify their resistance pattern, <i>iuc</i>, <i>rmpA2</i>, <i>iroB</i> genes were investigated by polymerase chain reaction. <b>Results: </b>The frequency of <i>iuc</i>, <i>iroB, rmpA2 </i>were 74.7%, 57.9%, 2.1% respectively among the clinical isolates. String tests were positive among 30 isolates and the remaining 65 isolates gave negative results. Antibacterial susceptibility test showed that all isolates were resistant to Ceftriaxone 100%, 5 isolates 5.3% were resistant to Colistin, 36 isolates (37.9%) were Meropenem resistant and 64 isolates (67.4%) were Piperacillin tazobactam resistant. <b>Conclusions:</b> There was a high prevalence of <i>iuC </i>virulence gene of hvkp, high frequency Iron acquisition systems coding gene <i>iuC gene</i>, <i>iroB<b> </b>gene </i>compared to regulator mucoid phenotype A2 (<i>rmpA2 gene)</i> among clinical isolates.