Search

Mycobacterium tuberculosis has a complex cell wall containing mycolic acids (MA), which play an important role in pathogenesis, virulence, and survival by protecting the cell against harsh environments. Studies have shown that genes encoding enzymes involved in MA synthesis are essential to mycobacterial functionality. Here, we used whole-genome sequencing to evaluate mutations in genes related to MA metabolism in M. tuberculosis isolates from pulmonary tuberculosis patients of the Florianópolis Metropolitan Area, Santa Catarina, Brazil, and assessed associations with clinical, epidemiological, and genotypic data. The mutations Rv3057c Asp112Ala (104/151), Rv3720 His70Arg (104/151), and Rv3802c Val50Phe (105/151) were identified in about 69% of the isolates and were related to the LAM lineage. SIT 216/LAM5 (13.2%, 20/151) had the highest frequency and presented the mutations accD2 Lys23Glu, kasA Gly269Ser, mmaA4 Asn165Ser, otsB1 Asp617Asn, Rv3057c Asp112Ala, Rv3720 His70Arg, Rv3802c Val50Phe, and tgs4 Ala216Glu. All SIT 73/T isolates (6.6%, 10/151) showed a characteristic and exclusive gene mutation pattern: amiD Rv3376 3790075G > A, fbpA-aftB 4266941G > A, echA11 Asn220fs, and otsB2 Ser110Arg. SITs 20/LAM1, 64/LAM6, 50/H3, 137/X2, and 119/X1 were also related to specific mutations. SITs from the LAM lineage differed in mutation profile from those of the T, Haarlem, and X lineages. Isolates from patients who had treatment failure showed mutations that do not seem to have a pattern related to this outcome. It was possible to identify a broad repertoire of single-nucleotide polymorphisms in genes related to MA metabolism in M. tuberculosis isolates. This study also described, for the first time, the variability between different SITs/sublineages of Lineage 4 circulating in Florianópolis Metropolitan Area., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The Tuberculosis (TB) notification rates are 5 to 81 times higher in prisons worldwide when compared to the general population. The state of Santa Catarina (SC) has few epidemiological data regarding TB in prisons. The aim of this study was to evaluate the molecular epidemiology of circulating strains in prisons of SC. The study comprised 95 clinical samples from six prisons. Among the cases included, all subjects were male, predominantly caucasians, and young adults, with low education level. The positive smear in the TB diagnosis comprised 62.0% of cases. About 50% of subjects had some condition associated with TB. The Spoligotyping results showed that the most frequent lineages were LAM (50.7%), T (22.2%) and S (11.6%). The 12-loci MIRU generated 62 different genotypes. The MSTs showed evolutionary relationships between Mycobacterium tuberculosis spoligotypes from SC and evolutionary relationships between the prison isolates and studied parameters. This first study on TB in prison units of SC highlighted the predominance of SIT216/LAM5, and SIT34/S. Interestingly, his profile was found to be different from that observed in a previous study performed with the state's general population. This data shows the need for continued surveillance of episodes of TB occurring among prison inmates in an emerging country like Brazil., (Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Gallic acid and gallates with the same number of hydroxyl groups and varying the length of the side carbon chain, with respective lipophilicity being defined through the ClogP values, were examined for their ability to induce apoptosis (through the DNA ladder fragmentation pattern), mitochondrial and cytoplasmic GSH depletion and NF-kappaB activation in murine lymphoblastic L1210 leukemia cells. A relationship between cytotoxic effect and a limited degree of lipophilicity was observed.