Extremely lethal and hypervirulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain cluster emerging in Far East, Russia

Emerging Microbes and Infections

Natalia Solovieva¹  Marine Dogonadze¹  Svetlana Zhdanova²  Oleg Ogarkov²  Maria Badleeva³  Oksana Pasechnik⁴  Natalia Zabolotnykh⁵  Maria Vitovskaya⁵  Alena Gerasimova⁶  Irina Yarusova⁶  Anna Vyazovaya⁶  Tatiana Vinogradova⁶  Igor Mokrousov⁶ 

[1] Bacteriology Laboratory, St. Petersburg Research Institute of Phthisiopulmonology, St. Petersburg, Russia;Department of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Scientific Centre of the Family Health and Human Reproduction Problems, Irkutsk, Russia;Department of Infectious Diseases, Buryat State University, Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, Russia;Department of Public Health, Omsk State Medical University, Omsk, Russia;Laboratory of Experimental Tuberculosis and New Medical Technologies, St. Petersburg Research Institute of Phthisiopulmonology, St. Petersburg, Russia;Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics, St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia;

关键词: Mycobacterium tuberculosis;    virulence;    mouse model;    Beijing genotype;    epidemic;   

DOI  :  10.1080/22221751.2021.1967704

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains of the early ancient sublineage of the Beijing genotype are mostly drug susceptible and mainly circulate in East Asia. We have recently discovered two clusters of this sublineage emerging in the Asian part of Russia (VNTR-defined 1071-32 and 14717-15 types) and, to our surprise, both were strongly MDR/XDR-associated. Here, we evaluated their pathogenic features. The clinical isolates and reference laboratory strain H37Rv were investigated in the C57BL/6 mouse model to assess their virulence and lethality properties. The BACTEC MGIT 960 system was used to study the in vitro growth characteristics. In the murine model, strains 396 (14717-15-cluster, from Buryatia, Far East) and 6691 (1071-32-cluster, from Omsk, Siberia) demonstrated contrasting properties. The 396-infected group had significantly higher mortality, more weight loss, higher bacterial burden, and more severe lung pathology. Furthermore, compared to the previously published data on other Russian epidemic Beijing strains (B0/W148, CAO, Central Asian Russian), strain 396 demonstrated the highest mortality. Under the in vitro growth experiment, cluster 14717-15 isolates had significantly shorter lag-phase. To conclude, low-virulent MDR strain 6691 belongs to the Beijing 1071-32-cluster widespread across FSU countries but at low prevalence. This corresponds to common expectation that multiple drug resistance mutations reduce fitness and virulence. In contrast, highly lethal and hypervirulent MDR strain 396 represents an intriguing Beijing 14717-15 cluster predominant only in Buryatia, Far East (16%), sporadically found beyond it, but not forming clusters of transmission. Further in-depth study of this most virulent Russian Beijing cluster is warranted.

【 授权许可】

Unknown