Bacterial genotyping of central nervous system tuberculosis in South Africa: Heterogenic Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection and Predominance of Lineage 4

L. M. van Leeuwen, P. Versteegen, S. D. Zaharie, S. L. van Elsland, A. Jordaan, E. M. Streicher, R. M. Warren, M. van der Kuip, A. M. van Furth

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Abstract

Tuberculous meningitis (TBM), the most severe extrapulmonary manifestation of tuberculosis, is caused by the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The M. tuberculosis complex includes seven lineages, all described to harbor a unique geographical dissemination pattern and clinical presentation. In this study, we set out to determine whether a certain M. tuberculosis lineage demonstrated tropism to cause TBM in patients from Cape Town, South Africa. DNA was extracted from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded central nervous system (CNS) tissue from a unique neuropathological cohort of 83 TBM patients, collected between 1975 and 2012. M. tuberculosis lineages 1, 2, 3, and 4 were determined using an allele-specific PCR and Sanger sequencing. Of the 83 patient specimens tested, bacterial characterization could be performed on 46 specimens (55%). M. tuberculosis lineage 4 was present in 26 patient specimens (56%), and non-lineage 4 was identified in 10 cases (22%). Moreover, genomic heterogeneity was detected in the CNS specimens of 7 adults and 3 children. We could show that infection of the CNS is not restricted to a single M. tuberculosis lineage and that even young children with rapid progression of disease can harbor more than one M. tuberculosis lineage in the CNS.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere00415-19
JournalJournal of clinical microbiology
Volume57
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2019

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