Looveren M VAN, Caugant D A, Chapelle S, Carion F, Goossens H
Department of Medical Microbiology, University Hospital Antwerp, UIA, Antwerp, Belgium, *World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Meningococci, National Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway and †Department of Bacteriology, Scientific Institute for Public Health-Louis Pasteur, Brussels, Belgium.
J Med Microbiol. 2001 Nov;50(11):986-990. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-50-11-986.
During a period of increasing meningococcal disease incidence in Belgium, all 538 serogroup B and all 87 serogroup C strains isolated between 1996 and 1998 were investigated by PCR with the arbitrary primer D8635, which is able to identify lineage III strains. In all, 399 strains (64%) were attributed to lineage III on the basis of PCR-based typing. Since their introduction in the Belgian population in the early 1990s, lineage III strains have become increasingly variable in phenotype. Currently, they are represented by strains belonging to 38 different phenotypes, of which 25 were not found in the period 1990-1995. The 87 serogroup C strains were further investigated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and a subset of 30 strains was also investigated by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Strains of phenotype C:2b:P1.5,2, which currently constitute the majority of the serogroup C strains, were demonstrated to belong to cluster A4. Comparison of the discriminatory ability of D8635-primed PCR, PFGE and MLST revealed that D8635-primed PCR was the least discriminatory method and PFGE the most discriminatory method. However, the MLST data were more readily interpreted than the PFGE fingerprint patterns and can be compared easily with data obtained in other studies. In conclusion, the ongoing increase of meningococcal disease in Belgium could be attributed not only to the further expansion of lineage III, but also to the introduction of C:2b:P1.5,2 strains of cluster A4 in to the Belgian population.
在比利时脑膜炎球菌病发病率上升期间，采用能鉴定Ⅲ型菌株的任意引物D8635对1996年至1998年间分离出的所有538株B群菌株和所有87株C群菌株进行了PCR检测。基于PCR分型，共有399株（64%）菌株被归为Ⅲ型。自20世纪90年代初Ⅲ型菌株引入比利时人群以来，其表型变得越来越多样化。目前，它们由属于38种不同表型的菌株代表，其中25种在1990 - 1995年期间未被发现。对87株C群菌株进一步采用脉冲场凝胶电泳（PFGE）进行研究，对其中30株的一个子集还采用多位点序列分型（MLST）进行了研究。目前构成C群菌株大多数的C:2b:P1.5,2表型菌株被证明属于A4簇。对D8635引物PCR、PFGE和MLST的鉴别能力比较表明，D8635引物PCR是鉴别能力最差的方法，PFGE是鉴别能力最强的方法。然而，MLST数据比PFGE指纹图谱更容易解读，并且可以很容易地与其他研究获得的数据进行比较。总之，比利时脑膜炎球菌病的持续增加不仅可归因于Ⅲ型菌株的进一步扩展，还可归因于A4簇的C:2b:P1.5,2菌株引入比利时人群。
