Genotyping of multidrug-resistant strains of mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Limpopo Province

Abstract

Genotyping of TB is essential to investigate and confirm transmission of the multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and of great value in optimizing strategies for the determination of strains causing the increased mortality rates of TB outbreaks. Sputum samples (207) were collected from National Health Laboratory Services in Polokwane laboratory for determining mutations and genotypes of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains using GenoType®MTBDRplus (Hain LifeScience, Germany) and Real-Time PCR (Roche, South Africa) techniques. Of the 207 samples, 28 (13.5%) exhibited drug resistance. Thirteen of the 28 (46%) MDR-TB strains belonged to the non-Beijing family, with mutations at codons rpoB 516 and rpoB 526 for RIF and katG 315 and inhA 15 for INH resistance. The Non-Beijing strains 75% (21/28) were monoresistant to RIF 14% (3/21) at codons 516, 526, 531 of rpoB gene and INH 19% (4/21) at codon 315 of katG and codon 15 of inhA 5% (1/21). Of the eight Beijing strains, 3(8%) were INH- resistant at codon 315 for katG and codon 15 for inhA and 3(8%) were RIF-resistant with mutations at codons 516 and 526. Two samples were typed as MDR for the Beijing strains with codon 315 for INH and codons 526 and 531 for RIF. The sample with a co-infection for Beijing and non-Beijing was an MDR-TB strain with mutations in rpoB codons 526, 531, katG 315 and inhA 8, 15 and16. The study showed a high rate of drug resistance with the non-Beijing compared to Beijing strains and mutations in specific codons for RIF and INH are variable for the TB families.