Jornal de doenças genéticas e relatórios genéticos

RPOB Gene Polymorphism and its Association with Multi Drug Resistance Pattern of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and Associated Risk Factors among TB Patients

Tekeba Sisay and Nega Berhane

RPOB Gene Polymorphism and its Association with Multi Drug Resistance Pattern of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and Associated Risk Factors among TB Patients

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death in the world due to bacterial infection. Despite the use of effective chemotherapy in the past years, drug-resistant TB especially multidrug resistance (MDR) is becoming a series challenge to compact . Rifampin (RIF) is one of the most important TB chemotherapeutic agents that act by inhibiting mycobacterial transcription, targeting DNA-dependent RNA polymerase (rpoB). The aim of the present study was to determine rpoB gene polymorphism and its association with Multi Drug Resistance (MDR) pattern of MTB by PCR and to determine the associated risk factors for drug resistance development. In this study rpoB mutations in the hot spot region (511-533 codons) were detected in 32 (69.6%) out of 46 smear positive (non-converged) MDR-TB patients and 5 (10.87%) out of 46 smear negative (converged) MDR-TB patients. However, there was not detected mutant allele in smear positive susceptible counter parts. The patients’ prior anti TB treatment history, HIV infection, origin of infection and drug misuse were found significant risk factors (p=.000, .000, .004, .000, respectively) for drug resistance development. The detection of mutations at 511-533 codons by PCR in 69.6% of non-converged MDR-TB patients indicated that most of drug resistance development is due to mutation at this position and the high prevalence of mutant rpoB allele.