Author(s)

Perpetual W. Ndungu^1*, Samuel Kariuki², Gunturu Revathi³, Zipporah Ng’ang’a¹, Stefan Niemann⁴

¹Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya.
²Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
³Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya.
⁴National Reference Centre for Mycobacteria, Forschungszentrim, Borstel, Germany.

Background: Molecular typing allows a rapid and precise species differentiation and is essential in investigating the spread of specific genotypes and any relationship with drug resistance. Methodology: To compare the discrimination power of 24-loci Mycobacteria interspersed repetitive units-variable number of tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) to spoligotyping in determining the circulating genotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in isolates from pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Kenya, a total of 204 isolates were typed. Results: Spoligotyping identified 22 spoligo lineages; while 36(17.6%) isolates were not determined. MIRU-VNTR typing identified 12 genotypes; Kenya H37_Rv_ like, S-like that had never been reported before and which were not identified by spoligotyping were identified. Others were Uganda I and II, LAM, Beijing, TUR, EAI, Delhi/C, S and Haarlem. Only 8 (3.9%) were not defined by MIRU-VNTR. Delhi/CAS, EAI, S, S-like, LAM and Beijing had strains that showed resistance to all the five drugs tested. Two strains of EAI and 2 of S genotypes were resistant to all the five drugs tested. Beijing genotype commonly associated with drug resistance was found to be third in drug resistance (14.7%) after Delhi/CAS (28.9%) and LAM (17.6%) with the highest resistance towards isoniazid and pyrazinamide (3.9% each). MIRU-VNTR typing was more discriminative than spoligotyping; identifying 10 unique H37_Rv-like isolates designated KeniaH37_Rv_like genotype and 14 S-like genotype. Conclusion: MIRU-VNTR typing has not been reported in any other study in Kenya and its higher discrimination can help identify genotypes that cannot be determined by spoligotyping. Association of Beijing genotype drug resistance particularly isoniazid should be of concern since it may result in multidrug resistance in the patients.

Tuberculosis, MIRU-VNTR Typing, Spoligotyping

Ndungu, P. , Kariuki, S. , Revathi, G. , Ng’ang’a, Z. and Niemann, S. (2017) Mycobacteria Interspersed Repetitive Units-Variable Number of Tandem Repeat, Spoligotyping and Drug Resistance of Isolates from Pulmonary Tuberculosois Patients in Kenya. Advances in Microbiology, 7, 205-216. doi: 10.4236/aim.2017.73017.