Proteomic Characterization of Two Strains Belonging to the Haarlem and LAM Mycobacterium tuberculosis Families.

LAURA KLEPP; FEDERICO BLANCO; VALERIA ROCHA; CAMILA VAZQUEZ; BEATRIZ LOPEZ; VIVIANA RITACCO; MARÍA SASIAIN; FABIANA BIGI

París

Congreso; Tuberculosis 2012: Biology, pathogenesis, intervention strategies.; 2012

Instituto Pasteur

In Argentina multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) outbreaks emerged among hospitalized patients with AIDS in the early 90?s and thereafter disseminated to the immunocompetent community. The population structure of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex adapted to humans consists on six principal lineages which are adapted to particular geographic regions (Gagneux et al. 2007). In América, the predominant lineage is number 4, which includes the Haarlem family, the Latin American and Mediterranean (LAM) family, and the X, T and S families, among others (Sougakoff et al. 2011). Argentina is the only Latin American country which has reported large MDR-TB outbreaks, with a prolonged and extensive transmission. The predominant families between MDR-TB patients in this country are Haarlem (36%), and LAM (36%) (Ritacco et al. 2011). The strains belonging to these families exhibit differential immune responses, such as differences in apoptosis induction of polymorphonuclear cells (PMN), cytokines production, etc. (unpublished results). In order to characterize these M. tuberculosis families, we compared the proteomic profile of two antibiotics- sensitive strains, 12425 and 10406, belonging to the Haarlem and LAM families, respectively. We performed 1D and 2D-PAGE electrophoresis to compare sub- cellular fractions (culture filtrate, cell wall and cell associated proteins) from the two strains and we identified seven differential proteins. The differential expression between both strains of five of these genes was further confirmed by real time RT-PCR. We believe that the herein reported differences at the proteomic and transcriptomic level will help to understand the biological differences observed between the Haarlem and LAM M. tuberculosis families, responsible of MDR-TB outbreaks in Argentina.