Whole genome sequencing-based drug resistance predictions of multidrug-resistant

Rifampicin- or multidrug-resistant (RR/MDR)We compared WGS-based drug resistance-predictive mutations for 42 MTBC isolates from MDR-TB patients in Tanzania with the MICs of 14 antibiotics measured in the Sensititre™ MycoTB assay. An isolate was phenotypically categorized as resistant if it had an MIC above the epidemiological-cut-off (ECOFF) value, or as susceptible if it had an MIC below or equal to the ECOFF.Overall, genotypically non-wild-type MTBC isolates with high-level resistance mutations (gNWT-R) correlated with isolates with MIC values above the ECOFF. For instance, the median MIC value (mg/L) for rifampicin-gNWT-R strains was4.0 (IQR 4.0-4.0) compared with 0.5 (IQR 0.38-0.50) in genotypically wild-type (gWT-S,WGS-based drug resistance prediction worked well to rule-in phenotypic drug resistance and the absence of second-line drug resistance-mediating mutations has the potential to guide the design of RR/MDR-TB regimens in the future.