Nationwide surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility of 509 rapidly growing mycobacteria strains isolated from clinical specimens in Japan

Abstract This study aimed to identify effective treatments against rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) infections by investigating the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 24 antimicrobial agents and their molecular mechanisms of resistance. In total, 509 clinical RGM isolates were identified by analyzing the sequences of three housekeeping genes (hsp65, rpoB, and sodA), and their susceptibilities to 24 antimicrobial agents were tested. We also performed sequencing analysis of antimicrobial resistance genes (rrl, rrs, gyrA, and gyrB). To identify Mycobacteroides abscessus group subspecies, we performed PCR-based typing and determined the sequevar of erm(41). We identified 15 RGM species, most of which were susceptible to amikacin and linezolid. Among these species, arbekacin and sitafloxacin had the lowest MIC among the same class of antimicrobials. The MIC of rifabutin for M. abscessus subsp. abscessus (MAB) was lower than that for M. abscessus subsp. massiliense (MMA). The proportion of MAB isolates with MIC ≤ 2 mg/L for rifabutin was significantly higher than that of MMA [MAB: 50/178 (28.1%) vs. MMA: 23/130 (17.7%); p = 0.041]. In summary, our study revealed the antimicrobial susceptibility profile of 15 RGM species isolated in Japan and indicated that arbekacin, sitafloxacin, and rifabutin may be possible therapeutic options for RGM infections.