Identification of three major clones of multiply antibiotic-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae in Taiwanese hospitals

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Multiplex PCR and Reverse Line Blot Hybridization Assay (mPCR/RLB)
10:15

Multiplex PCR and Reverse Line Blot Hybridization Assay (mPCR/RLB)

Published on: August 6, 2011

Z Y Shi1, M C Enright, P Wilkinson

  • 1School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, United Kingdom.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology
|November 18, 1998
PubMed

Insights

Multilocus sequence typing effectively characterizes penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, identifying novel Taiwanese clones and known Spanish multidrug-resistant strains. This method aids in understanding antibiotic resistance patterns in pneumococci.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae poses a significant public health threat.
  • Accurate molecular typing is crucial for tracking the emergence and spread of resistant strains.
  • Traditional typing methods may lack the discriminatory power for detailed clonal analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the utility of multilocus sequence typing (MLST) for characterizing penicillin-resistant pneumococci.
  • To identify and differentiate clonal lineages among Taiwanese penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates.
  • To compare Taiwanese isolates with known international multidrug-resistant clones.

Main Methods:

  • Sequencing of approximately 450-bp fragments from seven housekeeping genes for 74 penicillin-resistant Taiwanese Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates.
  • Determination of allelic profiles for each isolate based on the combined sequences of the seven loci.
  • Construction of a dendrogram using pairwise mismatches in allelic profiles to group isolates into clones.

Main Results:

  • MLST successfully grouped 86% of isolates into three major penicillin-resistant clones, with MICs of penicillin ranging from 1 to 2 microgram/ml.
  • Two novel clones, Taiwan-19F and Taiwan-23F, exhibited resistance to penicillin, tetracycline, and erythromycin, but susceptibility to chloramphenicol.
  • A third clone was indistinguishable from the Spanish multidrug-resistant serotype 23F clone, and other Spanish clones (serotype 9V and 6B) were also identified.

Conclusions:

  • Multilocus sequence typing provides unambiguous characterization of penicillin-resistant pneumococci, revealing distinct clonal structures.
  • The identification of novel Taiwanese clones highlights the need for continuous surveillance of antibiotic resistance.
  • MLST is a powerful tool for epidemiological studies, enabling the tracking of both emerging and established multidrug-resistant bacterial clones.

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