Abstract:
Objective To investigate the drug resistance-associated gene mutation characteristics of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MDR-MTB) strains in Hebei Province, evaluate the efficacy of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in detecting drug resistance, and verify the potential application of WGS in clinical diagnosis and drug resistance surveillance of tuberculosis.
Methods Clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were collected from 11 cities in Hebei Province between 2022 and 2023.. After species identification and phenotypic drug susceptibility testing (pDST) using the proportion method, 152 MDR-MTB isolates were subjected to WGS analysis. The drug resistance mutation sites were identified by aligning with the genome sequence of H37Rv, and the sensitivity, specificity, and consistency of WGS for predicting resistance to 10 anti-tuberculosis drugs were evaluated using pDST results as the gold standard.
Results Among the 152 MDR-MTB isolates, the primary resistance-associated mutation types to isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RFP), streptomycin (Sm), ethambutol (EMB), fluoroquinolones (FQs), second-line injectable drugs (SLIDs, including kanamycin (Km), amikacin (Am), and capreomycin (Cm)), and pyrazinamide (PZA) were katG_p.Ser315Thr (115/143,80.42%), rpoB_p.Ser450Leu (112/151,74.17%), rpsL_p.Lys43Arg (108/136,79.41%), embB_p.Met306Val (32/83,38.55%), gyrA_p.Ala90Val (24/65,36.92%), rrs_n.1401A>G (14/15−14/14,93.33%−100.00%) and pncA_p.Asp136Gly (12/70,17.14%). Additionally, one isolate exhibited a mutation associated with resistance to linezolid (Lzd), specifically RplC_p.Cys154Arg. The sensitivity and specificity of WGS in predicting resistance to different anti-tuberculosis drugs were as follows: INH: 94.08%, –; RFP: 99.34%, –; Sm: 97.10%, 78.57%; EMB: 76.81%, 63.86%; Mfx: 95.31%, 95.45%; Ofx: 96.77%, 94.44%; Lfx: 96.72%, 93.41%; Km: 88.24%, 100.00%; Am: 93.33%, 100.00%; Cm: 81.25%, 98.53%.
Conclusion WGS demonstrated good performance in predicting resistance to INH, RFP, FQs, Km, Am, and Cm, indicating high potential for application in tuberculosis diagnosis and drug resistance surveillance.