MOLECULAR GENOTYPING OF STRAINS OF Mycobacterium tuberculosis CIRCULATING IN CENTRAL RUSSIA: EFFECTIVENESS OF SPOLIGOTYPING AND VNTR-MIRU

摘要

The article discusses current problems in the molecular epidemiology of strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis circulating in the Samar a region of Russia. Using two PCR-based methods, 190 isolates of M, tuberculosis isolated from patients with various forms of pulmonary tuberculosis in civilian and prison institutions of the Samara region were genotyped. On the basis of a statistical treatment of the results using the Hunter-Gaston index, the resolving power of the methods of spoligotyping and variable lengths of tandem repeats (VNTR-MIRU) was compared, using 15 loci for the genotyping of mycobacteria in a population with high incidence of strains of the Beijing family (67.9%). The VNTR-MIRU method was found to be more effective, with higher resolving power (index 0,747), in comparison with the spoligotyping method (index 0.572). The VNTR-MIRU loci 10, 26, 31, 39, 40, and ETR-A) were characterized by the greatest polymorphism, which permits their recommendation for screening investigations, including those using electr ophor etic recording of the results without the use of automatic gene sequenators.