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Advancement in the routine identification of anaerobic bacteria by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

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Abstract

We evaluated matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) Biotyper as a tool for the identification of anaerobic bacteria compared with 500 base-pair (bp) 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) gene sequencing analysis, which is considered to be the “gold standard” method. A total of 484 anaerobic bacteria were retrieved from the clinical specimens of 318 pediatric patients. Molecular identification resulted in 18 genera and 51 species. The most prevalent genus was Clostridium (76.85 %), with 70 % C. difficile isolates. The concordance and sensitivity determined by MALDI-TOF MS for C. difficile, the most prevalent species isolated, was 94.08 %, whereas the specificity was 100 %. For the other anaerobes, the sensitivity and specificity were 94.07 % and 81.82 %, respectively, with a concordance of 93.15 %. Low performance was observed for Propionibacterium acnes and Fusobacterium nucleatum, for which a dedicated pretreatment procedure should likely be set up. MALDI-TOF MS was shown to be a valid alternative for the fast and reliable identification of the most clinically relevant anaerobic bacteria; moreover, it is less time-consuming, the cost for reagents is minimized, and it does not require dedicated personnel.

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Acknowledgments

The preliminary results shown in this paper have been presented in poster format at the 22nd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), London, United Kingdom, 31 March–3 April 2012. We thank the Scientific Commission of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases for allowing us to display our data at this prestigious congress. We thank our laboratory technicians, Silvia Gobbi, Eugenia Galeno, and Lucrezia Di Pietrantonio, for their labor-intensive bench work. This manuscript has been edited by native English-speaking experts of BioMed Proofreading.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Virology Unit, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, IRCCS, Piazza S. Onofrio 4, 00165, Rome, Italy

    L. Coltella, L. Mancinelli, M. Onori & C. Russo

  2. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Bacteriology Unit, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy

    B. Lucignano

  3. Medical Direction, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy

    D. Menichella & M. Raponi

  4. Laboratory of Biometry, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    R. Sorge

  5. Faculty of Medicine and Odontoiatry, University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy

    R. Mancini

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  1. L. Coltella
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  2. L. Mancinelli
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  3. M. Onori
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  4. B. Lucignano
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  8. R. Mancini
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  9. C. Russo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to L. Mancinelli.

Additional information

Luana Coltella and Livia Mancinelli contributed equally to this manuscript.

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Coltella, L., Mancinelli, L., Onori, M. et al. Advancement in the routine identification of anaerobic bacteria by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 32, 1183–1192 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-013-1865-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-013-1865-1

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