High fluoroquinolone resistance proportions among multidrug-resistant tuberculosis driven by dominant L2 Mycobacterium tuberculosis clones in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
Dreyer V., Mandal A., Dev P., Merker M., Barilar I., Utpatel C., Nilgiriwala K., Rodrigues C., Crook DW., CRyPTIC Consortium None., Rasigade J-P., Wirth T., Mistry N., Niemann S.
BackgroundMultidrug-resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) strains are a serious health problem in India, also contributing to one-fourth of the global MDR tuberculosis (TB) burden. About 36% of the MDR MTBC strains are reported fluoroquinolone (FQ) resistant leading to high pre-extensively drug-resistant (pre-XDR) and XDR-TB (further resistance against bedaquiline and/or linezolid) rates. Still, factors driving the MDR/pre-XDR epidemic in India are not well defined.MethodsIn a retrospective study, we analyzed 1852 consecutive MTBC strains obtained from patients from a tertiary care hospital laboratory in Mumbai by whole genome sequencing (WGS). Univariate and multivariate statistics was used to investigate factors associated with pre-XDR. Core genome multi locus sequence typing, time scaled haplotypic density (THD) method and homoplasy analysis were used to analyze epidemiological success, and positive selection in different strain groups, respectively.ResultsIn total, 1016 MTBC strains were MDR, out of which 703 (69.2%) were pre-XDR and 45 (4.4%) were XDR. Cluster rates were high among MDR (57.8%) and pre-XDR/XDR (79%) strains with three dominant L2 (Beijing) strain clusters (Cl 1-3) representing half of the pre-XDR and 40% of the XDR-TB cases. L2 strains were associated with pre-XDR/XDR-TB (P ConclusionsOur data indicate a drastic increase of FQ resistance, as well as emerging bedaquiline resistance which endangers the success of newly endorsed MDR-TB treatment regimens. Rapid changes in treatment and control strategies are required to contain transmission of highly successful pre-XDR L2 strains in the Mumbai Metropolitan region but presumably also India-wide.