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1Houston Tuberculosis Initiative, Department of Pathology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA 2Pulmonary Services and Clinical Pathology Laboratory, University Hospital of Monterrey, Universidad Autonomy de Nuevo Leon, Nuevo Leon, Mexico 3Regional Tuberculosis Genotyping Laboratory, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, AR, USA 4Department of Medicine and 5Department of Anatomy, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA
Correspondence Edward A. Graviss egraviss{at}bcm.tmc.edu
Received June 10, 2003
Accepted November 13, 2003
Thirty-seven multidrug-resistant and 13 pan-susceptible isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were analysed for the diversity of genotypes associated with known drug-resistance mechanisms. The isolates were obtained from patients attending a university tuberculosis clinic in Monterrey, Mexico. A total of 25 IS6110-RFLP patterns were obtained from the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) isolates. Approximately 65 % of the MDR-TB isolates were attributed to secondary resistance. Different drug-susceptibility patterns were seen with the clustered isolates. The percentage of isolates resistant to isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RIF), ethambutol (EMB) and streptomycin (STR) was 100, 97.3, 48.7 and 67.6, respectively. The most common resistance-associated polymorphisms for the four drugs were as follows: INH, Ser315Thr (67.6 %) in katG; RIF, Ser450Leu (41.7 %) in rpoB; EMB, Met306Ile/Val/Leu (66.7 %) in embB; and STR, Lys43Arg (24 %) in rpsL. Drug-resistance-associated mutations were similar to changes occurring in isolates from other areas of the world, but unique, previously unreported, mutations in katG (n = 5), rpoB (n = 1) and rrs (n = 3) were also identified.
Present address: Epidemiology Department, School of Public Health, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, MI, USA. Abbreviations: EMB, ethambutol; INH, isoniazid; MDR-TB, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis; PZA, pyrazinamide; RIF, rifampicin; STR, streptomycin.
| INTRODUCTION |
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A global surveillance programme initiated in 1994 by the World Health Organization and the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease to monitor drug resistance has provided information on the prevalence of drug resistance in three states of Mexico, which included Baja California, Oaxaca and Sinaloa (World Health Organization, 1997; Anonymous, 1998a, b). This was the first population-based TB drug-resistance study in Mexico which reported both high and medium TB incidence in 1994 (World Health Organization, 1997). Recently, a clinic-based molecular epidemiological study of TB in Monterrey, Mexico, determined the diversity of RFLP patterns and the extent of drug resistance of M. tuberculosis isolates from patients who attended the clinic (Yang et al., 2001). Based on both IS6110 and pTBN12 characterization, 39 % of 166 isolates were shown to belong to 22 clusters, indicating extensive recent transmission. The study also showed that the prevalence of drug-resistant TB was high, with 32 % of the 186 isolates testing drug-resistant and 18 % MDR (Yang et al., 2001).
The present investigation was undertaken to identify resistance-associated mutations in the MDR-TB isolates recovered from patients who attended the Jose E. Gonzalez University Hospital TB clinic in Monterrey, Mexico. It has been suggested that mutations conferring drug resistance may vary geographically (Rinder et al., 1997). Thus, the information gained by genotyping drug-resistant isolates helps not only to identify genetic markers in M. tuberculosis strains unique to a particular geographical niche, but also in the evaluation of molecular screening tests to identify MDR-TB.
| METHODS |
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1 % growth on drug-containing medium compared to a control medium (National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards, 1995). Isolates resistant to at least INH and RIF were considered MDR.
DNA isolation, characterization and genetic group analysis.
Isolation of DNA and IS6110-RFLP analysis were performed by using an internationally standardized method (van Embden et al., 1993). The molecular profiles were analysed by computer-assisted analysis using the BIOIMAGE software WHOLE BAND ANALYSER, version 3.4. Of the 34 samples analysed, the number of IS6110 copies ranged from two to 14. Ten isolates had less than six copies of IS6110 and were defined as low-copy isolates. Twenty isolates had unique IS6110 profiles and the remaining 14 isolates shared five different band patterns. Isolates with the same IS6110-RFLP pattern or low-copy isolates were subjected to a secondary typing method using pTBN12 as probe, which contains the polymorphic GC-rich sequences (Chaves et al., 1996). Of the nine isolates that gave results with pTBN12-typing, one cluster containing two isolates was identified. The isolates in the cluster could be further distinguished based on their susceptibility patterns (Table 1). All isolates were assigned to one of three principal genetic groups based on polymorphisms present at gyrA codon 95 and katG codon 463 (Sreevatsan et al., 1997a). Twenty isolates (54 %) were group 3, and 17 isolates (46 %) were group 2. There were no group 1 isolates. Isolates with the same IS6110, pTBN12 profiling patterns and genetic grouping were considered to be clonally related.
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PCR amplification and DNA sequencing.
The major resistance-determining regions of the katG, embB, rpsL and rpoB genes were amplified using oligonucleotide primers and PCR conditions described previously (Heym et al., 1995; Kapur et al., 1994; Sreevatsan et al., 1996; Ramaswamy et al., 2000; Escalante et al., 1998). In addition to rpsL for determining STR resistance-associated mutations, the entire rrs gene encoding the 16S rRNA was amplified using two sets of primers: F1 (5'-GTCAGGATATTTCTAAATACCTTTGG-3'), R1 (5'-CACCTCAGCG TCAGTTACTG-3'), F2 (5'-CAGTAACTGACGCTGAGGAG-3') and R2 (5'-GTTTTCGTGGTGCTCCTTAG-3'). A GeneAmp System 9700 thermocycler (Applied Biosystems) was used for targeted DNA amplification. Unincorporated nucleotides and primers were removed by filtration using Microcon 100 microconcentrators (Amicon). DNA sequencing reactions were performed with the BigDye Terminator Cycle Sequencing kit (Applied Biosystems) with appropriate primers and purified PCR-amplified DNA as the template. The sequencing reactions were cleaned using Centrisep spin columns (Princeton Separations) and run on an ABI PRISM 377 DNA Sequencer (Applied Biosystems). The sequence data generated were assembled and edited electronically with the ALIGN and EDITSEQ programs (DNASTAR) and compared with the H37Rv genome database as well as with corresponding sequences from the susceptible M. tuberculosis strains (Cole et al., 1998).
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
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Correlation between susceptibility testing and genotypic data
Drug susceptibility data for the MDR-TB isolates are shown in Table 1. All 37 isolates were resistant to INH and RIF, except one strain (1531), which was susceptible to RIF. Twenty-five isolates (67.6 %) were resistant to STR, and 18 isolates (48.7 %) were resistant to EMB. Thirteen isolates (35.1 %) were resistant to all four drugs tested and 16 isolates (43.2 %) were resistant to three drugs. No correlation could be found between drug susceptibility patterns and molecular characterization data. The drug susceptibility profile correlated well with the observed and previously reported frequencies of mutations found in katG and inhA (91.8 %), embB (83.3 %) and rpoB (83.8 %) (Ramaswamy & Musser, 1998; Kapur et al., 1994; Ramaswamy et al., 2000; Telenti et al., 1997a). Eleven isolates (44 %) with streptomycin resistance had a resistance-associated mutation. One MDR-TB isolate (1674) had no mutations identified in the target regions. Four MDR-TB isolates had additional genotypic resistance, three of which were identified in embB and the other change was found in rrs. Isolates in the same cluster had different drug susceptibilities and resistance-associated mutations. This indicates that a majority of the isolates had acquired mutations independently. This rules out the presence and dissemination of a highly successful MDR-TB clone in the Monterrey community based on the recovered isolates. Although all MDR-TB isolates described by Yang et al. (2001) were used in this study and the sample size is small, it is reasonable to think that genotypes described in this study are circulating in the Monterrey and surrounding communities.
Analysis of mutations in the target regions
Resistance-associated mutations in katG, inhA and rpoB, markers for INH and RIF resistance, respectively, were found in 30 isolates (81.1 %). The nucleotide and amino acid changes identified in the drug-resistant isolates are shown in Table 2. The study shows that MDR-TB strains from Monterrey not only have mutations in regions of genes previously shown to be involved in drug resistance, but also have mutations not described previously (Ramaswamy & Musser, 1998). For example, two common substitution mutations found in codons 450 and 445 of rpoB were also seen in strains from this study. Fifteen isolates (40.1 %) had a mutation in codon 450 and 27 % (n = 10) of RIF-resistant isolates had a substitution in codon 445. Two isolates, 616 and 1142, had two different mutations each in rpoB and no changes were seen in any of the susceptible isolates. One isolate had a missense change in codon 480 (Ile
Val) that has not been described previously (Table 2). Among the INH-resistant strains, 25 isolates (67.6 %) had a substitution mutation (Ser
Thr) at codon 315 of katG, which is the most common mutation described in INH-resistant strains. Recently, Viader-Salvadó et al. (2003) showed that 53.7 % of INH-resistant isolates showed a mutation in codon 315 of katG and 86 % of RIF-resistant isolates had a resistance-associated mutation in rpoB of M. tuberculosis isolates recovered from north-east Mexico. New mutations were also identified in codons 249 (Arg
Cys), 275 (Thr
Ser), 307 (Gly
Glu) and 727 (Ala
Asp) of katG in INH-resistant isolates.
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The entire rpsL and rrs genes, encoding the ribosomal protein S12 and 16S rRNA, respectively, were sequenced for mutations associated with STR resistance. Only 11 isolates (44 %) harboured mutations that were not found in susceptible isolates, indicating that genes other than rpsL and rrs are involved in STR resistance. Six isolates had a Lys
Arg substitution in codon 43 of rpsL and no corresponding changes were found in the drug-sensitive isolates. Three isolates had a T
C change at nucleotide position 1238 of the rrs gene. Isolate 1258, believed to be sensitive to STR by drug susceptibility testing, had a C
T substitution at position 516 of rrs, which has been previously reported to be associated with drug resistance. Three other drug-resistant isolates had a C
T change at position 491 of rrs, but this change was also observed in three drug-sensitive isolates, suggesting that this polymorphism is not associated with drug resistance. A recent study also showed that this change is not associated with STR resistance, but is deeply rooted within an evolutionary clade of isolates from a suburb of Cape Town in South Africa (Victor et al., 2001). Our data corroborate with their findings and show that this change is associated only with major genetic group 3 isolates recovered from the Monterrey region in Mexico. Also, three more undescribed nucleotide substitutions in rrs of STR-resistant isolates were identified in our study. These changes were located at nucleotide positions 189 (G
A), 426 (G
T) and 1238 (T
C).
Twelve of the 18 (66.7 %) EMB-resistant isolates had mutations in the 461 bp embB region sequenced. In addition, three isolates judged to be sensitive to EMB by susceptibility testing showed resistance-associated mutations in embB. This discrepancy is probably due to heteroresistance involving mixed cultures. A total of 12 isolates had a substitution mutation in codon 306 and the remaining three isolates had amino acid replacements in codon 406.
Two isolates, 730 and 1498, were part of a cluster with identical IS6110 (4 bands, profile M059) and pTBN12 characterization (147), but differed in their drug susceptibility profiles. Both isolates had identical alleles in rpoB, katG and rpsL. However, isolate 1498 differed from 730 by its susceptibility to EMB, suggesting that 730 arose from 1498 by acquiring additional resistance to EMB.
Mutations associated with high-level resistance to fluoroquinolones (FQs) are generally clustered in a 40 amino acid stretch around codon 95 of the gyrA gene (Ramaswamy & Musser, 1998). Although the susceptibility testing was not done for FQs, the resistance-determining region in gyrA was sequenced for all the isolates to determine the major genetic grouping. No mutations associated with FQ resistance were detected.
In conclusion, the genotypic analysis of MDR-TB isolates from Monterrey, Mexico, identified that commonly found mutations in drug-resistant isolates from different regions of the world are also found in this region (Ramaswamy & Musser, 1998). Molecular strategies used to rapidly detect resistance-associated mutations would be applicable to isolates in Monterrey and other parts of Mexico. The new mutations identified in this study illustrate that, in spite of several genotypic studies done on drug-resistant isolates, there still remains a number of resistance-associated mutations to be discovered in M. tuberculosis. It remains to be seen if any of the new mutations identified in this study can also be found in other parts of Mexico based on a larger sample size and an epidemiologically independent group of isolates.
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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| REFERENCES |
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