Diabetic Foot Ulcer Infections and Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm Production During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

During the different waves of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there has been an increased incidence of diabetes mellitus and diabetic foot infections. Among gram-negative bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the predominant causative agent for diabetic foot ulcer infections in low-resource countries. P. aeruginosa possesses a variety of virulence factors, including biofilm formation. Biofilm formation is an important benchmark characteristic in the pathophysiology of diabetic foot ulceration. The main objective of the current study was to identify the most commonly isolated organisms and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns in diabetic foot patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also determined the genes associated with bacterial persistence and biofilm formation in the predominantly isolated organism. Accordingly, 100 wound swab samples were collected from diabetic foot patients from different hospitals in Alexandria, Egypt. Through phenotypic detection of biofilm formation, 93% (40) of the 43 P. aeruginosa isolates examined were categorized as biofilm producers. Molecular detection of the biofilm-encoding genes among the 43 P. aeruginosa isolates was as follows: algD (100%), pelF (88%) and pslD (49.7%), and this highlights a need for biofilm formation inhibitors to prevent the persistence of bacterial pathogens, and thus achieve better clinical outcomes in diabetic foot ulcer infections.