Prevalence of mutations associated with drug resistance in Beijing and non-Beijing Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains from the Southern Ukraine

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) incidence in Ukraine has virtually doubled since 1992, reaching 77.5/100 000 in 2003. Recent studies have demonstrated that Beijing strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis dominate in certain regions of Russia and some countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU). The spread of Beijing strains and their strong association with high levels of drug resistance are believed to be major factors contributing to the TB epidemic in the FSU. Limited data regarding drug resistance rates are available only for selected regions of Ukraine and the prevalence of different genotypes and their contribution to the TB epidemic in Ukraine is unknown. Materials and methods: Total of 110 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from patients with pulmonary TB from Odessa and Nikolaev oblasts were analysed. Beijing strains were identified using spoligotyping. The prevalence of mutations in rpoB, katG and inhA associated with rifampicin and isoniazid resistance was evaluated using a dot-blot hybridization macroarray based on reverse hybridization of biotin-labelled PCR products to oligonucleotide probes immobilized on membranes.