title: Diagnosis of Mycobacterium microti infections among humans by using novel genetic markers.
abstract: As a result of DNA typing of Mycobacterium microti isolates from animals in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands, we diagnosed four human M. microti infections. These are the first M. microti infections among humans to be reported. Three of the patients were immunocompromised and suffered from generalized forms of tuberculosis. The fourth patient was a 34-year-old immunocompetent male with a persistent cough and undefined X-ray abnormalities. Two of the M. microti infections were recognized by their IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns, which showed a high degree of similarity with those of M. microti strains isolated from a pig and a ferret in The Netherlands. The two other human M. microti infections were recognized by using the recently developed DNA fingerprinting method, "spoligotyping," directly on clinical material. All M. microti isolates from the United Kingdom and The Netherlands were found to contain an exceptionally short genomic direct repeat region, resulting in identical two-spacer sequence reactions in spoligotyping. In contrast, the highly similar IS6110 RFLP patterns of the vole strains from the United Kingdom differed considerably from the RFLPs of all M. microti strains isolated in The Netherlands, suggesting that geographic isolation led to divergent strains in the United Kingdom and on the continent.
authors.affiliation: Diagnostic Laboratory for Infectious Diseases and Perinatal Screening, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands. D.van.Soolingen@rivm.nl
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van Soolingen
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: van der Zanden
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: de Haas
authors.forename: G T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Noordhoek
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kiers
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Foudraine
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Portaels
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Kolk
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kremer
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: van Embden
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D002648:Child; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009161:Mycobacterium / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D009426:Netherlands; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D005819:Genetic Markers