Loading…

Impact of bacterial genetics on the transmission of isoniazid-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Understanding the ecology of drug-resistant pathogens is essential for devising rational programs to preserve the effective lifespan of antimicrobial agents and to abrogate epidemics of drug-resistant organisms. Mathematical models predict that strain fitness is an important determinant of multidrug...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS pathogens 2006-06, Vol.2 (6), p.e61-e61
Main Authors: Gagneux, Sebastian, Burgos, Marcos V, DeRiemer, Kathryn, Encisco, Antonio, Muñoz, Samira, Hopewell, Phillip C, Small, Peter M, Pym, Alexander S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Understanding the ecology of drug-resistant pathogens is essential for devising rational programs to preserve the effective lifespan of antimicrobial agents and to abrogate epidemics of drug-resistant organisms. Mathematical models predict that strain fitness is an important determinant of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission, but the effects of strain diversity have been largely overlooked. Here we compared the impact of resistance mutations on the transmission of isoniazid-resistant M. tuberculosis in San Francisco during a 9-y period. Strains with a KatG S315T or inhA promoter mutation were more likely to spread than strains with other mutations. The impact of these mutations on the transmission of isoniazid-resistant strains was comparable to the effect of other clinical determinants of transmission. Associations were apparent between specific drug resistance mutations and the main M. tuberculosis lineages. Our results show that in addition to host and environmental factors, strain genetic diversity can influence the transmission dynamics of drug-resistant bacteria.
ISSN:1553-7374
1553-7366
1553-7374
DOI:10.1371/journal.ppat.0020061