Mycobacteria mobility shift assay: a method for the rapid identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacteria

摘要

The identification of mycobacteria is essential because tuberculosis (TB) and mycobacteriosis are clinicallyindistinguishable and require different therapeutic regimens. The traditional phenotypic method is time consumingand may last up to 60 days. Indeed, rapid, affordable, specific and easy-to-perform identification methods areneeded. We have previously described a polymerase chain reaction-based method called a mycobacteria mobilityshift assay (MMSA) that was designed for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) and nontuberculous mycobacteria(NTM) species identification. The aim of this study was to assess the MMSA for the identification of MTCand NTM clinical isolates and to compare its performance with that of the PRA-hsp65 method. A total of 204 clinicalisolates (102 NTM and 102 MTC) were identified by the MMSA and PRA-hsp65. For isolates for which these methodsgave discordant results, definitive species identification was obtained by sequencing fragments of the 16S rRNAand hsp65 genes. Both methods correctly identified all MTC isolates. Among the NTM isolates, the MMSA aloneassigned 94 (92.2%) to a complex or species, whereas the PRA-hsp65 method assigned 100% to a species. A 91.5%agreement was observed for the 94 NTM isolates identified by both methods. The MMSA provided correct identificationfor 96.8% of the NTM isolates compared with 94.7% for PRA-hsp65. The MMSA is a suitable auxiliary methodfor routine use for the rapid identification of mycobacteria.