[Cross-resistance between isoniazid and ethionamide and its strong association with mutation C-15T in Mycobacterium...

Several studies have shown cross-resistance between isoniazid and ethionamide, 2of the drugs used in the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. The objective of this study was to determine the cross-resistance between both drugs in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from a hospital with high incidence of tuberculosis in Lima, Peru. The frequency of mutations to isoniazid in the katG gene and the inhA promoter region was identified by the Genotype MTBDRplus v2.0 molecular test. The gold standard Agar Proportion method (APM) allowed todetect resistance to isoniazid and ethionamide. Of 107 isoniazid-resistant isolates (54 multidrug-resistant isolates identified by the Genotype MTBDRplus test, 45.8% (49/107) were also resistant to ethionamide by the APM. Mutations were found in the katG gene in 50.5% (54/107), in the promoter region inhA in 23.3% (25/107) and 14.0% (15/107) that share both mutations in the resistant isolates to INH. The absence of the wild type and mutation bands indicated that 12.1% (13/107) of the isolates were resistant to INH. The mutation C-15T in the inhA promoter region showed a strong association with resistance to ethionamide in 73.4% (36/49) of the isolates analyzed. The results of the present study suggest that the identification of mutations related to resistance to isoniazid, especially in the inhA promoter region, could be very useful to identify cross-resistance to ethionamide and improve the treatment of individuals suffering from this disease.