Escherichia coli have been associated with severe and sometimes fatal infections like pyelonephritis, septicemia, endocarditis, meningitis, urinary tract infections (UTIs), epidemic diarrhea of adults and children. The situation is worsening due to increased antibiotic resistance plasmid genes of the bacteria. The study correlates plasmids with drug resistance of clinical isolates of E.coli. A total of 52 E.coli clinical isolates from different human clinical specimens (comprising of urine, blood, faeces, hand and wound swab) were obtained from patients in hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria and their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern and plasmid profiles were tested against methanolic leaf extract of Azadirachta indica and some selected antibiotics. Thirteen isolates of E.coli were selected and cultured in nutrient broth in the presence and absence of 1% SDS solution. Very high resistance levels (≥75) were detected against ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin. ampicillin, tetracycline, Co-Amoxiclavand imipenem,while nitrofurantoin (96.2%), gentamicin (88.5%), ofloxacin (78.9%), chloramphenicol (71.2%) and A.indica (65.4%) were highly sensitive to the E.coli strains. Some of the isolates possessed single sized plasmid while others had multiple plasmids with different sizes which ranged from 2.1 kb to 21.7 kb. High antibiotic resistances were detected from isolates with high molecular weight plasmids.

Keyword:Antimicrobial susceptibility, Azadirachta indica, Escherichia coli and plasmid profiles.

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