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Characterization of Clinical Isolates of Mycobacterium simiae Using Drug Susceptibility Tests and Molecular Analyses

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Abstract

Mycobacterium simiae is an emerging nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) and an opportunistic pathogen which is described mainly in Asia and presents in the environment that can cause pulmonary infection. The objective of this study is to characterize M. simiae clinical isolates using mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit variable-number tandem repeats (MIRU-VNTR) typing for the differentiation of the strains. A total of 169 clinical isolates of NTM were recovered from patients suspected of having tuberculosis (TB)-like and related infections. After isolation and identification of mycobacterial strains by conventional biochemical and PCR-based tests, M. simiae strains were confirmed using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)-based identification assay. Furthermore, drug susceptibility and MIRU-VNTR typing was performed using on the clinical isolates of M. simiae. Out of 169 NTM strains, 92 (54.4%) isolates were identified as M. simiae. Antibiotic susceptibility experiments indicated that all 92 M. simiae isolates were resistant to first line antimycobacterial agents. Moreover, 8 (8.6%) M. simiae isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin; and 6 (6.5%) were resistant to both amikacin and kanamycin, while the remaining were susceptible to second line antimycobacterial agents. MIRU-VNTR analysis showed that the M. simiae isolates were classified in four distinct M. simiae clusters and two single types. The minimum spanning analysis revealed that the isolates were grouped in three complexes. The data suggested that MIRI-VNTR typing is useful for typing of M. simiae isolates, however, MIRU-16 locus was absolutely absent in M. simiae.

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Data Availability

The data used to support this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Abbreviations

NTM:

Nontuberculous mycobacteria

MOTT:

Mycobacteria other than tuberculosis

VNTR:

Variable-number tandem-repeat

RFLP:

Restriction fragment length polymorphism

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and the Department of Microbiology affiliated to Islamic Azad University Branch of Karaj for supporting this project.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

    Hoda Dezhkhi & Azam Haddadi

  2. Mycobacteriology Research Center (MRC), National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (NRITLD), World Health Organization Collaborating Centre, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (Medical Campus), Darabad, PO 19575/154, Tehran, 19556, Iran

    Parissa Farnia, Poopak Farnia & Ali Akbar Velayati

  3. Department of Biotechnology, School of Advanced Technology in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Poopak Farnia

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  1. Hoda Dezhkhi
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Correspondence to Parissa Farnia.

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The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Ethical Review Committee of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (approval number: IR.SMU.NRITLD.REC.1397.564).

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In this study, informed consents were obtained from all subjects and/or their legal guardians prior to sample collection.

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Dezhkhi, H., Farnia, P., Haddadi, A. et al. Characterization of Clinical Isolates of Mycobacterium simiae Using Drug Susceptibility Tests and Molecular Analyses. Curr Microbiol 78, 2324–2331 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-021-02486-w

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