Photographic and luminometric detection of luciferase reporter phages for drug susceptibility testing of clinical Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates.
Luciferase reporter phages (LRPs) have proven to be efficient tools for drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Luminometric detection of LRP activity offers higher sensitivity and quantitative results, while a Polaroid film detection method offers a "low-tech" inexpensive alternative that is called the Bronx box. In this work we evaluated, improved, and compared the performance of the luminometer and the Bronx box formats for drug susceptibility testing with LRPs by using 51 clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis, with the agar proportion method (PM) serving as reference. The sensitivity in detecting resistance to isoniazid and rifampin, antibiotics that define multidrug resistance (MDR), was 100% for both methods. The turnaround time for results was reduced from 3 weeks for PM to 54 or 94 h for luminometry or the Bronx box, respectively. These results support the utility of LRPs as a screening test for the surveillance of MDR tuberculosis.
Hazbón
Manzour Hernando
MH
Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Médicas, Cali, Colombia. hazbonmh@umdnj.edu
Guarín
Nora
N
Ferro
Beatriz Eugenia
BE
Rodríguez
Ana Lucía
AL
Labrada
Luz Angela
LA
Tovar
Rafael
R
Riska
Paul F
PF
Jacobs
William R
WR
D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D006801:Humans; D007538:Isoniazid / Q000494:pharmacology; D008156:Luciferases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D009160:Mycobacteriophages / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D010781:Photography / Q000379:methods; D012293:Rifampin / Q000494:pharmacology; D018088:Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / Q000382:microbiology
D000995:Antitubercular Agents; D008156:Luciferases; D007538:Isoniazid; D012293:Rifampin