First experience of molecular typing and determining the antibiotic resistance of syphilis pathogen Treponema pallidum in the Russian Federation

Abstract

The authors present the results of molecular typing and determining the antibiotic resistance of 190 T. pallidum strains sampled from primary and secondary syphilitic patients in the russian Federation in 2011—2012. molecular typing of T. pallidum strains was based on two variable gens: arp, tpr, and was supplemented with an analysis of gene tp0548 reading frame. Antibiotic resistance of syphilis strains was determined by means of sequencing the gene encoding 23S rRNA T. pallidum in such loci as A2058G and A2059G/C (resistance to macrolides), gene encoding 16S rRNA T. pallidum in locus G1058C, and determinant tetB (resistance to tetracyclines) as well as full-scale sequencing the genes encoding target proteins of β-lactams Tp47 and Tromp. As a result of molecular typing in the territory of the Russian Federation, ten subtypes of T. pallidum were revealed. Type 14 (98.4%) predominates; the share of subtype 14d/f is 91.03%; the share of subtypes 14d/Tand 14b/f, Type 14, was 2.10 and 3.16%, respectively; the share of all other subtypes (11d/f, 13d/f, 14a/a, 14a/f, 14d/g, 14d/c, 20d/f) was 0.53%. molecular markers of T. pallidum antibiotic resistance were revealed among the strains coming from the Central, Siberian and Volga federal regions of Russia: macrolides - three strains sampled in 2011; tetracyclines - two strains sampled in 2011 and one strain sampled in 2012.