Objective: To evaluate the application of spacer oligonucleotide typing (Spoligotyping) and mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable-number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) analysis in the molecular-epidemiological study of tuberculosis and to discuss the characteristics of pediatric Mycobacterium (M.) tuberculosis strains in Chongqing.
Methods: M. tuberculosis strains isolated and typed by Spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR respectively, from the children patients in Chongqing and to compare the results from both methods, epidemiologically.
Results: By means of Spoligotyping, 210 clinical isolates were divided into 2 gene groups, displaying 44 genotypes. Among them, the biggest group was M. tuberculosis Beijing family, including 130 strains (61.90%), using the Spoligotyping. From the results of MIRU-VNTR, 24 loci showed different polymorphism and the HGI of different loci set (12 old loci, 15 basic loci and 24-loci set) increased accordingly. The subtle difference in HGI was originated from one locus ETR-B, which was included in the 24-locus system. The diversity of each loci and MIRU-VNTR set for non-Beijing genotype strains was higher than that of the Beijing genotype strains.
Conclusion: In this study, it was preliminarily confirmed the existence of high polymorphism of M. tuberculosis while the Beijing Family was the main genotype and main prevalent strain in children of Chongqing area. Spoligotyping prior to 15-locus with ETR-B combination seemed more suitable for the massive epidemiological investigation of pediatric tuberculosis patients.