Ann Lab Med.  2014 Jan;34(1):31-37. 10.3343/alm.2014.34.1.31.

The Drug Resistance Profile of Mycobacterium abscessus Group Strains from Korea

• Lee SH
• Yoo HK
• Kim SH
• Koh WJ
• Kim CK
• Park YK
• Kim HJ

• KMID: 1781357
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3343/alm.2014.34.1.31

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Bacteria of the Mycobacterium abscessus group are the second most common pathogens responsible for lung disease caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria in Korea. There is still a lack of studies investigating the genetic mechanisms involved in M. abscessus resistance to antibiotics other than clarithromycin. This study investigated the characteristics of drug resistance exhibited by M. abscessus clinical isolates from Korea.
METHODS
We performed drug susceptibility testing for a total of 404 M. abscessus clinical strains. Subspecies were differentiated by molecular biological methods and examined for mutations in drug resistance-related genes.
RESULTS
Of the 404 strains examined, 202 (50.00%), 199 (49.26%), and 3 (0.74%) strains were identified as M. abscessus, M. massiliense, and M. bolletii, respectively. Of the 152 clarithromycin-resistant strains, 6 possessed rrl mutations, while 4 of the 30 amikacin-resistant strains contained rrs mutations, and 5 of the 114 quinolone-resistant strains had gyr mutations. All mutant strains had high minimal inhibitory concentration values for the antibiotics.
CONCLUSIONS
Our results showed the distribution of the strains with mutations in drug resistance-related genes was low in the M. abscessus group. Furthermore, we performed drug susceptibility testing and sequence analyses to determine the characteristics of these genes in the M. abscessus group.

Keyword

Mycobacterium abscessus group; Drug resistance; Mutation

MeSH Terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology
Bacterial Proteins/genetics
Clarithromycin/pharmacology
DNA Gyrase/genetics
*Drug Resistance, Bacterial
Humans
Methyltransferases/genetics
Microbial Sensitivity Tests
Mutation
Mycobacterium/drug effects/*isolation & purification
Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous/diagnosis/*microbiology
Republic of Korea
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Bacterial Proteins
Clarithromycin
DNA Gyrase
Methyltransferases

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