The relative transmission fitness of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a drug resistance hotspot.

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is among the most frequent causes of death due to antimicrobial resistance. Although only 3% of global TB cases are MDR, geographical hotspots with up to 40% of MDR-TB have been observed in countries of the former Soviet Union. While the quality of TB control and patient-related factors are known contributors to such hotspots, the role of the pathogen remains unclear.

Prisons as ecological drivers of fitness-compensated multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) accounts for one third of the annual deaths due to antimicrobial resistance. Drug resistance-conferring mutations frequently cause fitness costs in bacteria. Experimental work indicates that these drug resistance-related fitness costs might be mitigated by compensatory mutations.

Classifying recurrent Mycobacterium tuberculosis cases in Georgia using MIRU-VNTR typing.

Introduction: Recurrent tuberculosis (TB) is one of the main challenges in TB control. Genotyping based on Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Units-Variable Tandem Repeats (MIRU-VNTR) has been widely used to differentiate between relapse and reinfection, which are the two main causes of recurrent TB. There is a lack of data regarding the causes of TB recurrence in Georgia, and while differentiating between relapse and reinfection plays a key role in defining appropriate interventions, the required genotyping methodologies have not been implemented.

Optimizing multiplex SNP-based data analysis for genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates.

Background: Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) is a powerful tool to identify genomic polymorphisms. We have previously developed a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and large sequence polymorphisms (LSP)-based MLPA assay using a read out on a liquid bead array to screen for 47 genetic markers in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome. In our assay we obtain information regarding the Mycobacterium tuberculosis lineage and drug resistance simultaneously.

Combined species identification, genotyping, and drug resistance detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis cultures by MLPA on a bead-based array.

The population structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is typically clonal therefore genotypic lineages can be unequivocally identified by characteristic markers such as mutations or genomic deletions. In addition, drug resistance is mainly mediated by mutations. These issues make multiplexed detection of selected mutations potentially a very powerful tool to characterise Mycobacterium tuberculosis.