Abstract
Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is the most common pathogen in humans that causes various infections. A variety of infections due to S. aureus are related to virulence factors, one of which is Toxic Shock Syndrome Toxin-1 (TSST-1) as the main cause of Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS). This study aimed to explore the genetic pattern of the tsst-1 genes among MSSA and MRSA from clinical isolates of patients at Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya-Indonesia. This study performed a PCR test on 106 clinical samples of S. aureus isolated to determine the presence of the tsst-1 genes; subsequently, this study also performed phylogenetic analysis. The positive tsst-1 genes were found in 3 (5.7%) MSSA isolates and 2 (3.8%) MRSA isolates from 106 samples that were divided into 53 MSSA isolated and 53 MRSA isolates. There was no significant difference between the tsst-1 genes on both the MSSA and MRSA bacteria (p = 0.648). The positive tsst-1 genes were found in 1 (4.5%) of pus specimens and 2 (16.7%) of blood specimens from MSSA isolates. However, the positive tsst-1 genes were found in neither sputum nor urine specimens. The genes were found in 2 (16.7%) of blood specimens from MRSA isolates. Based on the phylogenetic tree, Indonesian tsst-1 isolated belonged to the same clade as Japan, Iran, Iraq, India, Egypt, and the United Kingdom. The prevalence of tsst-1 genes of both MSSA and MRSA from clinical isolates in Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital Surabaya was 5.7% and 3.8%, respectively. The tsst-1 genes of Surabaya-Indonesia, Japan, Iran, Iraq, India, Egypt, and the United Kingdom belonged to the same clade.