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In this work, we investigated the ability of antibiotics to influence virulence in <jats:italic>Escherichia coli<\/jats:italic> isolated from urinary tract infection (UTI).<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Out of 120 isolates, 32.5% carried <jats:italic>pap<\/jats:italic>, 21.7% carried <jats:italic>hlyA<\/jats:italic>, and 17.5% carried <jats:italic>cnf<\/jats:italic>. The predominant B2 phylogroup was significantly associated with the quinolone-resistant isolates. A significant association was seen between the presence of <jats:italic>hlyA<\/jats:italic> hemolysin and susceptibility to ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u20090.05). Sub-inhibitory concentrations of both antibiotics reduced the levels of <jats:italic>hlyA<\/jats:italic> expression and hemolysis in isolates treated with antibiotics compared to untreated isolates (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u20090.05). Growth rate assay showed that the decrease in <jats:italic>hlyA<\/jats:italic> expression was not an effect of decreased growth rate.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Our study indicated the inhibitory effect of ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone on the level of hemolysis, suggesting that the sub-inhibitory concentrations of these antibiotics may affect the outcome of infections. Further studies, including animal models may elucidate the outcome of virulence modulation by these antibiotics in UTI pathogenesis.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12866-022-02506-0","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,6]],"date-time":"2022-04-06T05:03:15Z","timestamp":1649221395000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":18,"title":["Characterization of Escherichia coli isolated from urinary tract infection and association between virulence expression and antimicrobial susceptibility"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Safoura","family":"Derakhshan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sanaz","family":"Ahmadi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Erfan","family":"Ahmadi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sherko","family":"Nasseri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abbas","family":"Aghaei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,6]]},"reference":[{"issue":"1","key":"2506_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"260","DOI":"10.1080\/21505594.2019.1596507","volume":"10","author":"W Adamus-Bia\u0142ek","year":"2019","unstructured":"Adamus-Bia\u0142ek W, Wawszczak M, Arabski M, Majchrzak M, Gulba M, Jarych D, et al. 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An informed consent was obtained from all patients. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The authors declare that they have no competing interests.","order":4,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"89"}}