A novel biochemistry approach combined with MALDI-TOF MS to discriminate Escherichia coli and Shigella species

Tianyi Li; Qinghua Zou; Binghua Zhang; Di Xiao

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2023.341967

A novel biochemistry approach combined with MALDI-TOF MS to discriminate Escherichia coli and Shigella species

Anal Chim Acta. 2023 Dec 15:1284:341967. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2023.341967. Epub 2023 Oct 27.

Authors

Tianyi Li¹, Qinghua Zou², Binghua Zhang¹, Di Xiao³

Affiliations

¹ National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, 102206, China.
² Department of Microbiology and Infectious Disease Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100191, China.
³ National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, 102206, China. Electronic address: xiaodi@icdc.cn.

PMID: 37996154
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2023.341967

Abstract

Escherichia coli and Shigella spp. are closely related, making it crucial to accurately identify them for disease control and prevention. In this study, we utilized MALDI-TOF MS to identify characteristic peaks of decarboxylation products of lysine and ornithine to distinguish between E. coli and Shigella spp. Our findings indicate that the peak at m/z 103.12 ± 0.1 of the product cadaverine from lysine decarboxylase is unique to E. coli, while all Shigella species lack the m/z 103.12 ± 0.1 peak. However, S. sonnei and S. boydii serotype C13 exhibit a specific peak at m/z 89.10 ± 0.1, which is the product of putrescine from ornithine decarboxylase. We were able to correctly identify 97.06% (132 of 136) of E. coli and Shigella isolates and 100% (8 of 8) of S. sonnei isolates using this biochemical-based MALDI-TOF MS detection system. This technology is advantageous for its high-throughput, high quality, and ease of operation, and is of significant value for the diagnosis of E. coli and Shigella-related diseases.

Keywords: Biochemistry; Escherichia coli; MALDI-TOF MS; Shigella spp..

MeSH terms

Cadaverine
Escherichia coli* / chemistry
Putrescine
Shigella* / chemistry
Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization

Substances

Cadaverine
Putrescine