I. M. F. D. Baptista. MOLECULAR TYPING OF Mycobacterium tuberculosis STRAINS ISOLATED FROM SERUM POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE HIV PATIENTS IN THE BAURU REGION – SÃO PAULO.

THESIS. I. M. F. D. Baptista submitted this dissertation for her Masters in Tropical Diseases at Botucatu School of Medicine, São Paulo State University, UNESP, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil, 2001.

Advisor: Professor Diltor Vladimir Araújo Opromolla

Co-Advisor: Professor Philip Noel Suffys

ABSTRACT. This study evaluated Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains from patients of the “Hospital Manoel de Abreu” and from serum positive and negative patients treated at the outpatient clinic of the “Instituto Lauro de Souza Lima” and “Instituto Adolfo Lutz” for the characterization of strain molecular pattern. Fifty-seven strains were submitted to sensitivity tests to the following drugs: isoniazid, rifampicin, streptomycin, ethambutol, and pyrazinamide; resistance rate was 42.6%. Molecular typing of M. tuberculosis strains was performed by two techniques: Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) using the IS6110 insertion sequence, and Double Repetitive Element (DRE-PCR). From the 57 M. tuberculosis strains, 17 (30%) belonging to six clusters were found by IS6110-RFLP; and 31 (55.3%) strains belonging to seven clusters were found by DRE-PCR. The IS6110-RFLP technique showed higher discriminatory power because it only included strains with total identity, while DRE-PCR included strains that had been identified as being different by one or two bands by IS6110-RFLP. No association between cluster and HIV-infected patients could be observed by IS6110 analysis.

KEY WORDS: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, molecular typing, Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP), Double Repetitive Element (DRE-PCR), IS6110-RFLP, HIV.

CORRESPONDENCE TO:

I. M. F. D. Baptista - Departamento de Doenças Tropicais e Diagnóstico por Imagem, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, UNESP. Distrito Rubião Junior, s/n, 18618-000, Botucatu, SP, Brasil. Email crisnog@fmb.unesp.br