We describe an allele-specific PCR assay to detect mutations in three codons of the rpoB gene (516, 526, and 531) in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains; mutations in these codons are reported to account for majority of M. tuberculosis clinical isolates resistant to rifampin (RIF), a marker of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Three different allele-specific PCRs are carried out either ...

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem with high mortality and morbidity rates, especially in low-income countries. Disturbingly, the emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB cases has worsened the situation, raising concerns of a future epidemic of virtually untreatable TB. Indeed, the rapid diagnosis of MDR TB is a critical issue fo...

Tuberculosis is still a severe public health issue in eastern Asia, and Sichuan is the key area for tuberculosis control in China. To determine the phenotypic and mutation patterns of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from Sichuan, the drug susceptibility of 198 clinical isolates was examined. Among these isolates, 76 drug-resistant and 20 susceptible isolates were analyzed...

OBJECTIVE Tuberculosis remains a severe public health issue, and the Beijing family of mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) is widespread in East Asia, especially in some areas in China, like Beijing and Tianjin. This study aimed at determining the mutation patterns of drug-resistant Beijing strains of M. tuberculosis isolated from Tianjin, China. METHODS A total of 822 M. tuberculosi...

Although rifamycins have excellent activity against Chlamydophila pneumoniae and Chlamydia trachomatis in vitro, concerns about the possible development of resistance during therapy have discouraged their use for treatment of chlamydial infections. Rifalazil, a new semisynthetic rifamycin with a long half-life, is the most active antimicrobial against C. pneumoniae and C. trachomatis in vitro, ...

Rifampin-resistant (Rifr) Neisseria meningitidis strains are known to have single point mutations in the central conserved regions of the rpoB gene. We have demonstrated two distinct resistance phenotypes in strains with identical mutations in this region, an intermediate level of resistance in Rifr clinical isolates and a high level of resistance in mutants selected in vitro. The possible role...

This study investigated mutations in the rpoB gene of rifampin-resistant isolates obtained from patients living in Eastern Poland. A total of 37 phenotypically and/or genotypically confirmed M. tuberculosis rifampin-resistant clinical isolates were included in this study. The strains were selected from symptomatic patients with a diagnosis of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis. A line pr...

This is an open-access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis represent an obstacle in tuberculosis control and stress the need for rapid and reliable diagnostic tools for drug sus...

Recent multi locus sequence typing (MLST) and genome based studies indicate that lateral gene transfer (LGT) events in the rpoB gene are prevalent between Mycobacterium abscessus complex strains. To check the prevalence of the M. massiliense strains subject to rpoB LGT (Rec-mas), we applied rpoB typing (711 bp) to 106 Korean strains of M. massiliense infection that had already been identified b...

Multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains are widespread and present a challenge to effective treatment of this infection. The need for a low-cost and rapid detection method for clinically relevant mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis that confer multidrug resistance is urgent, particularly for developing countries. We report here a novel test that detects the majority of clinic...