Spoligotype profile of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains from HIV-positive and -negative patients in...

We ran a comparative analysis of all patients for whom a positive culture of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex was available between April 2004 and October 2005 and whose HIV serology results were known, with spoligotyping results (n = 163) split into 49 HIV-positive patients and 114 HIV-negative patients. Spoligotype international type 373 (SIT373) (T1 lineage), which was highly prevalent among the HIV(+) patients, was totally absent from the HIV(-) population, suggesting that we had a specific clone affecting nearly 1/3 of all HIV-tuberculosis (TB)-coinfected patients. Among the LAM10-CAM sublineage strains, we had only a single strain of SIT403 among HIV(-) patients (0.88%), as opposed to 12.25% of the HIV(+) population (χ(2) = 10.77; P < 0.01), indicating a strong association between the strain and the HIV(+) population. The LAM10-CAM lineage spoligotype SIT61 was prevalent among the 2 subsets (37.72% in HIV(-) versus 12.24% in HIV(+) populations), though, with a significant difference between the 2 groups (χ(2) = 10.53; P < 0.01). However, there was no significant difference for SIT53 (T1 lineage) in the 2 subsets: 6.14 versus 8.2% (χ(2) = 0.22; P > 0.05). A total of 7/49, or 14.3%, other SITs among HIV(+) patients were not found among the HIV(-) patients. When added to the most prevalent SIT among HIV(+) patients (SIT373; n = 16), 23/49, or 47%, isolates among HIV-TB-coinfected patients were unique. We conclude that further studies should be carried out to investigate the evolution of these genotypes and others in the emergence of multidrug resistance and control of tuberculosis in Nigeria.