High Frequency of Chlamydia trachomatis Mixed Infections Detected by Microarray Assay in South American Samples

PLoS One. 2016 Apr 15;11(4):e0153511. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153511. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections worldwide. Based on sequence variation in the ompA gene encoding the major outer membrane protein, the genotyping scheme distinguishes 17 recognized genotypes, i.e. A, B, Ba, C, D, Da, E, F, G, H, I, Ia, J, K, L1, L2, and L3. Genotyping is an important tool for epidemiological tracking of C. trachomatis infections, including the revelation of transmission pathways and association with tissue tropism and pathogenicity. Moreover, genotyping can be useful for clinicians to establish the correct treatment when LGV strains are detected. Recently a microarray assay was described that offers several advantages, such as rapidity, ease of standardization and detection of mixed infections. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the DNA microarray-based assay for C. trachomatis genotyping of clinical samples already typed by PCR-RFLP from South America. The agreement between both typing techniques was 90.05% and the overall genotype distribution obtained with both techniques was similar. Detection of mixed-genotype infections was significantly higher using the microarray assay (8.4% of cases) compared to PCR-RFLP (0.5%). Among 178 samples, the microarray assay identified 10 ompA genotypes, i.e. D, Da, E, F, G, H, I, J, K and L2. The most predominant type was genotype E, followed by D and F.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacterial Typing Techniques / methods
  • Chlamydia Infections / diagnosis*
  • Chlamydia Infections / epidemiology*
  • Chlamydia Infections / microbiology
  • Chlamydia trachomatis / genetics*
  • Chlamydia trachomatis / isolation & purification
  • Coinfection
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • DNA, Bacterial / isolation & purification
  • Female
  • Female Urogenital Diseases / epidemiology
  • Female Urogenital Diseases / microbiology
  • Genotype
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Male Urogenital Diseases / epidemiology
  • Male Urogenital Diseases / microbiology
  • Molecular Diagnostic Techniques* / methods
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis* / methods
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction / methods
  • Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
  • Prevalence
  • South America / epidemiology

Substances

  • DNA, Bacterial

Grants and funding

The study was financed in part by a grant of the Universidad de Buenos Aires UBACyT B810 and UBACyT 20020090200460 awarded to MRF. KS acknowledges financial support by the national research network “Zoonotic chlamydiae – Models of chronic and persistent infections in humans and animals,” which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) of Germany under grant 01KI0720. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.