Publications by authors named "Debra Janella"

Phenotypic susceptibility testing of the complex (MTBC) isolate requires culture growth, which can delay rapid detection of resistant cases. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) and data analysis pipelines can assist in predicting resistance to antimicrobials used in the treatment of tuberculosis (TB). This study compared phenotypic susceptibility testing results and WGS-based predictions of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to four first-line antimicrobials-isoniazid, rifampin, ethambutol, and pyrazinamide-for MTBC isolates tested between the years 2018-2022.

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Tuberculosis is a significant cause of morbidity worldwide and is a priority at the provincial and federal levels in Canada. It is known that tuberculosis transmission networks are complex and span many years as well as different jurisdictions and countries. MIRU-VNTR is a universal tuberculosis genotyping method that utilizes a 24-loci pattern and it has shown promise in identifying inter and intrajurisdictional clusters within Canada.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Mycobacterium abscessus causes severe infections and has dual resistance mechanisms to macrolide antibiotics like clarithromycin, making treatment challenging due to the presence of erm(41) and rrl gene mutations.
  • - The study developed a real-time PCR assay that effectively detects both types of antibiotic resistance in M. abscessus, showing high correlation with traditional methods.
  • - Findings indicated that real-time PCR is a more reliable method for identifying clarithromycin resistance, especially when dealing with mixed genotypes in samples, achieving 100% agreement with sequencing results in this study.
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Canada has one of the lowest rates of tuberculosis (TB) in the world, however, among certain sub-populations, disease incidence rates approach those observed in sub-Saharan Africa, and other high incidence regions. In this study, we applied mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit (MIRU) variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) and whole genome sequencing (WGS) to the analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates obtained from Northern communities in the territory of Nunavut. WGS was carried out using the Illumina MiSeq, with identified variants used to infer phylogenetic relationships and annotated to infer functional implications.

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Serotyping is the long-standing gold standard method to determine E. coli H antigens; however, this method requires a panel of H-antigen specific antibodies and often culture-based induction of the H-antigen flagellar motility. In this study, a rapid and accurate method to isolate and identify the Escherichia coli (E.

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