Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Beijing genotype of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has attracted special attention due to its association with multi drug resistance and rapid transmission. The present study was undertaken to investigate the prevalence of Beijing genotype of M. tuberculosis and their association with drug resistance and clinical characteristics of TB patients. A total of 381 clinical isolates were cultured from more than 4000 TB patients’ sputum samples from 2008 to 2014, of which the genetic profile was determined by using multiplex-PCR and Spoligotyping methods and the drug susceptibility testing to first-line anti-TB drugs was performed by using proportion method and MGIT960. Detection of mutations at rpoB codons (516, 526 and 531), katG codon 315 and embB codon 306 in Beijing and non- Beijing-strains were determined by MAS-PCR and DNA-sequencing. We also characterized a collection of M. tuberculosis isolates to see if Beijing strains had a higher rate of mutations in katG315, rpoB-RRDR region and embB306 gene. Multidrug-resistance was observed to be significantly associated with Beijing strains (p=0.03) and a strong correlation between Beijing strains and specific resistance mutations in katG315, rpoB531 and embB306 gene segments was also found (p=<0.0001, <0.0001 & 0.0014 respectively). These findings will help to understand the transmission and drug resistance related genetic characteristics of the Beijing/W genotype of M. tuberculosis and may provide a scientific basis for the development of new TB diagnostic tool for effective management and control of TB in countries with higher prevalence of Beijing strains.

Biography

Anamika Gupta has completed her PhD from Banaras Hindu University, India and Postdoctoral studies from National AIDS Research Institute, India. Currently, she is working with Boston University School of Medicine as a Visiting Researcher. She has published 13 papers in peer reviewed journals and 5 manuscripts are in process. She has also published 3 chapters in the books of international repute.

Email: anamikag@bu.edu