1887

Journal of Medical Microbiology logo

Volume 52, Issue 6

Nucleotide sequence-based typing of meningococci directly from clinical samples Free

Abstract

The unpredictable characteristics of meningococcal disease (MD) make outbreaks complicated to monitor and consequently lead to high levels of public anxiety. Traditional molecular techniques have been utilized in order to understand better the epidemiology of MD, but some have disadvantages such as being highly specialized and labour-intensive, with low reproducibility. Some of these problems have been overcome by using multilocus sequence typing (MLST). This technique exploits the unambiguous nature and electronic portability of nucleotide sequencing data for the characterization of micro-organisms. The need for enhanced surveillance of MD after the introduction of serogroup C conjugate vaccines means that it is important to gain typing information from the infecting organism in the absence of a culture isolate. Here, the application of MLST for the laboratory confirmation and characterization of directly from clinical samples is described. This involved using a newly designed set of primers that were complementary to nucleotide sequences external to the existing MLST primers already in use for culture-based MLST of meningococci. This combination has produced a highly sensitive procedure to allow the efficient genotypic characterization of meningococci directly from clinical samples.

  • Published Online:
© Microbiology Society
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.05078-0
2003-06-01
2024-04-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jmm/52/6/JM520610.html?itemId=/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.05078-0&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Cartwright K, Reilly S, White D, Stuart J. 1992; Early treatment with parenteral penicillin in meningococcal disease. BMJ 305:143–147 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Cartwright K, Noah N, Peltola H. 2001; Meningococcal disease in Europe: epidemiology, mortality, and prevention with conjugate vaccines.Report of a European advisory board meeting Vienna. Austria: 6–8 October, 2000; Vaccine 194347–4356 [CrossRef]
  3. Clarke S. C, Diggle M. A. 2002; Automated PCR/sequence template purification. Mol Biotechnol 21:221–224 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Clarke S. C, Edwards G. F. 2000; Implications for the serogroup incidence of meningococcal disease after the introduction of the MenC vaccine. Scott Med J 45:67– 67
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Clarke S. C, Christie P, Edwards G. F. 1999; Enhanced surveillance of meningococcal disease in Scotland. SCIEH Wkly Rep 33:235–236
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Clarke S. C, Diggle M. A, Edwards G. F. 2001a; Semiautomation of multilocus sequence typing for the characterization of clinical isolates of Neisseria meningitidis . J Clin Microbiol 39:3066–3071 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Clarke S. C, Reid J, Thom L, Denham B. C, Edwards G. F. 2001b; Meningococcal disease due to serogroup Y in Scotland, 1992–1999. Br J Biomed Sci 58:17–19
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Clarke S. C, Diggle M. A, Edwards G. F. 2001c; Automated non-culture-based sequence typing of meningococci from body fluids. Br J Biomed Sci 58:230–234
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Clarke S. C, Diggle M. A, Reid J. A, Thom L, Edwards G. F. 2001d; Introduction of an automated service for the laboratory confirmation of meningococcal disease in Scotland. J Clin Pathol 54:556–557 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Clarke S. C, Reid J, Thom L, Denham B. C, Edwards G. F. 2002; Laboratory confirmation of meningococcal disease in Scotland, 1993–9. J Clin Pathol 55:32–36 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Connolly M, Noah N. 1999; Is group C meningococcal disease increasing in Europe? A report of surveillance of meningococcal infection in Europe 1993–6.European Meningitis Surveillance Group. Epidemiol Infect 122:41–49 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Diggle M. A, Clarke S. C. 2002a; What a load of old sequence!!!. J Clin Microbiol 40:2707– 2707 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Diggle M. A, Clarke S. C. 2002b; Rapid assignment of nucleotide sequence data to allele types for multi-locus sequence analysis (MLSA) of bacteria using an adapted database and modified alignment program. J Mol Microbiol Biotechnol 4:515–517
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Diggle M. A, Edwards G. F, Clarke S. C. 2001a; Automation of fluorescence-based PCR for confirmation of meningococcal disease. J Clin Microbiol 39:4518–4519 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Diggle M. A, Edwards G. F. S, Clarke S. C. 2001b; Developments in the diagnosis of meningococcal disease and the characterization of Neisseria meningitidis . Rev Med Microbiol 12:211–217 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Enright M. C, Knox K, Griffiths D, Crook D. W, Spratt B. G. 2000; Molecular typing of bacteria directly from cerebrospinal fluid. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 19:627–630 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Feavers I. M, Gray S. J, Urwin R, Russell J. E, Bygraves J. A, Kaczmarski E. B, Maiden M. C. 1999; Multilocus sequence typing and antigen gene sequencing in the investigation of a meningococcal disease outbreak. J Clin Microbiol 37:3883–3887
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Guiver M, Borrow R, Marsh J, Gray S. J, Kaczmarski E. B, Howells D, Boseley P, Fox A. J. 2000; Evaluation of the Applied Biosystems automated Taqman polymerase chain reaction system for the detection of meningococcal DNA. FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol 28:173–179 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Harrison L. H. 1995; The worldwide prevention of meningococcal infection.Still an elusive goal. JAMA 273:419–421 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Hart C. A, Cuevas L. E. 1997; Meningococcal disease in Africa. Ann Trop Med Parasitol 91:777–785 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Kaczmarski E. B, Ragunathan P. L, Marsh J, Gray S. J, Guiver M. 1998; Creating a national service for the diagnosis of meningococcal disease by polymerase chain reaction. Commun Dis Public Health 1:54–56
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Kyaw M. H, Clarke S. C, Christie P, Jones I. G, Campbell H. 2002; Invasive meningococcal disease in Scotland, 1994 to 1999, with emphasis on group B meningococcal disease. J Clin Microbiol 40:1834–1837 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Maiden M. C, Spratt B. G. 1999; Meningococcal conjugate vaccines: new opportunities and new challenges. Lancet 354:615–616 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Newcombe J, Cartwright K, Palmer W. H, McFadden J. 1996; PCR of peripheral blood for diagnosis of meningococcal disease. J Clin Microbiol 34:1637–1640
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Ritchie L. D. 2001 Meningococcal Group C Immunisation Programme in Scotland: Final Report Glasgow: Meningococcal Group C Programme – Implementation Group;
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Salisbury D. 2001; Meningococcal group C vaccine and the United Kingdom experience. Int J Clin Pract Suppl10–11
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Virji M. 1996; Meningococcal disease: epidemiology and pathogenesis. Trends Microbiol 4:466–469 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Whalen C. M, Hockin J. C, Ryan A, Ashton F. 1995; The changing epidemiology of invasive meningococcal disease in Canada, 1985 through 1992.Emergence of a virulent clone of Neisseria meningitidis . JAMA 273:390–394 [CrossRef]
     [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.05078-0
Loading
Nucleotide sequence-based typing of meningococci directly from clinical samples
J. Med. Microbiol. 52, 505 (2003); https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.05078-0
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.05078-0
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.05078-0
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Most cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error