Genotyping of < i > Mycobacterium leprae < /i > for better understanding of leprosy transmission in Fortaleza, Northeastern Brazil

by Amanda N. B. Fontes, Luana N. G. C. Lima, Rosa M. S. Mota, Rosa L. F. Almeida, Maria A. Pontes, Heitor de S. Gon çalves, Cristiane C. Frota, Varalakshmi D. Vissa, Patrick J. Brennan, Ricardo J. P. S. Guimaraes, Carl Kendall, Ligia R. F. S. Kerr, Philip N. Suffys Leprosy is endemic in large part of Brazil with 28,761 new patients in 2015, the second largest number worldwide and reaches 9/10.000 in highly endemic regions and 2.7/10.000 in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará, Northeast Brazil. For better understanding of risk factors for leprosy transmission, we c onducted an epidemiologic study supplemented by 17 locus VNTR and SNP 1–4 typing ofMycobacterium leprae in skin biopsy samples from new multibacillary (MB) patients diagnosed at a reference center in 2009 and 2010. Among the 1,519 new patients detected during the study period, 998 (65.7%) were MB and we performed DNA extraction and genotyping on 160 skin biopsy samples, resulting in 159 (16%) good multilocus VNTR types. Thirty-eight of these patients also provided VNTR types fromM.leprae in nasal swabs. The SNP-Type was obtained for 157 patients and 87% were of type 4. Upon consideration all VNTR markers, 156 different genotypes and three pairs with identical genotypes were observed; no epidemiologic relation could be observed between individuals in these pairs. Considerable variability in differentiating index (DI) was observed between the different markers and the four with highest DI [(AT)15, (TA)18, (AT)17 and (GA...
Source: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases - Category: Tropical Medicine Authors: Source Type: research