Distribution of secreted aspartyl protease (SAP) virulence genes and antifungal resistance genes at vulvovaginal candidiasis isolates

Virulence factors and antifungal resistance features of Candida albicans considering a growing health problem worldwide. This study made to show the expression of both virulence and azole resistance genes at 100 clinical isolates of Candida we used a model of infection of human vaginal epithelial cells with C. albicans strains isolated from Egyptian women with vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC). The detection and expression of virulence genes and azole resistance genes were performed using PCR technic. All isolates were susceptible to ketoconazole (KTC), 3 isolates (3%) only were resist to both nystatin (NY) and amphotericin B (AMB) ,all isolates found resist to griseofulvin (AGF) 10 µg, eighty five isolates (85%)were resist to flucytosine (AFY), four isolates (4%)were resist to miconazole (MCL), seventy one isolates (71%) were resist to voriconazole (VO), thirty three isolates (33 %) were resist to itraconazole (ITC), forty one  isolates and twenty seven isolates (27%)were resist to 100 µg fluconazole (flu). All isolated strains expressed SAP4-SAP6 (100%) and almost all expressed SAP1-SAP3 (91%) In this study, fluconazole resistance was identified in 27% of the strains, whereas (27%) had positive ERG11 gene, (27%) were positive MDR1 gene and (14%) were positive CDR1 gene. The results indicate that the strains that infect Egyptian patients suffering from VVC are highly virulent and virtually all are insensitive to fluconazole.