Scientific Program including Abstracts
Transcription
Scientific Program including Abstracts
th 36 Annual Congress of the European Society of Mycobacteriology 28th June – 01st July 2015 Riga, Latvia Scientific Program including Abstracts 1 CONTENT Welcome Message ................................................ 4 Congress Organization ......................................... 5 Sponsors / Exhibition ........................................... 6 Scientific Program . ................................................8 List of Lectures . .................................................. 13 Lectures (L) ..................................................................... 13 Guest Lectures (GL) ....................................................... 13 Gertrud Meissner Award ................................................ 13 List of Oral Presentations (OP) .......................... 14 List of Poster Presentations (P) ......................... 18 Abstracts of Lectures ......................................... 28 Impressum Publisher Agency KONSENS Ltd. Stockumer Straße 30 59368 Werne Germany Phone: +49 23 89 / 52 75 0 Homepage: www.agentur-konsens.de Editor Prof. Dr. Stefan Niemann Research Center Borstel Parkallee 1-40 23845 Borstel Germany Lectures (L) ..................................................................... 28 Guest Lectures (GL) ....................................................... 30 Gertrud Meissner Award ................................................ 33 Abstracts of Oral Presentations ........................ 34 Abstracts of Poster Presentations .................... 52 Author Index ........................................................ 94 Design & Layout Agency KONSENS Ltd. Print Lonnemann GmbH Ludgeristraße 13 59379 Selm Germany ISBN: 978-3-00-049915-9 2 3 Welcome message CONGRESS ORGANIZATION Dear friends, SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION It is a great honor to announce that the 36th annual Congress of the European Society of Mycobacteriology will take place in the very centre of Europe – Riga, the capital of Latvia, from June 28th to July 1st, 2015. Riga is more than 800 years old, blending a medieval centre and a modern city. Ancient, but at the same time youthful, multicultural and European, today’s Riga surprises visitors with its diverse and rich cultural life. The old legend tells that Riga is a city that “will never be completed” and if completed it will sink into the waters of the river Daugava. The same incompleteness applies to our knowledge about mycobacteria and human coexistence and this urge to know more and better understand has driven ESM for many years. We believe that during the congress in Riga you will be immersed into the newest scientific achievements, fruitful discussions and a rich and enjoyable social life ranging from old traditions to a contemporary urban style. Ģirts Šķenders, Head of Mycobacteriology Department, Centre of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Riga East University Hospital, Stopiņu novads, Latvia Come to Riga to be inspired! Ģirts Šķenders STEERING COMMITEE President Prof. Dr. Stefan Niemann (Borstel, Germany) Vice-president Prof. Dr. phil II Gabriela Pfyffer von Altishofen (Luzern, Switzerland) Treasurer Nalin Rastogi (Pointe-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe, France) Secretary Suzana David (Lisbon, Portugal) Members MD PhD Daniela Maria Cirillo (Milano, Italy) Dr. Sven Hoffner (Solna, Sweden) Ģirts Šķenders (Stopiņu novads, Latvia) LOCAL ORGANIZING AGENCY Agency KONSENS Ltd. Germany 4 5 SPONSORS / ExhIBITION Exhibition map We express our gratitude to all who supported and helped the organization of the 36th edition of ESM congress: Platin Medal Sponsor Hain Lifescience GmbH www.hain-lifescience.com booth number: 1 Exhibition map 1st floor Silver Medal Sponsor BD Diagnostics – Diagnostic Systems www.bd.com booth number: 2 Alpha-Tec Systems Inc. www.alphatecsystems.com booth number: 3 Beamedex www.beamedex.com booth number: 5 AID – Autoimmun Diagnostika GmbH http://aid-diagnostika.com/ booth number: 6 Board room RIGA Poster session Wardrobe Foyer Coffee break Applied Maths Nv www.applied-maths.com booth number: 4 Genoscreen www.genoscreen.com booth number: 4 VILNIUS WC Other Sponsor Congress office Foyer WC 6 1 PARIS II PARIS I Conference hall Exhibition area and Coffee break 2 3 4 5 Alere Technologies GmbH www.alere-technologies.com 6 7 SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM Sunday, 28.06.2015 12:00 Registration 14:00-16:30 ESM – Symposium: Next Generation Sequencing of M. tuberculosis –Digging in the deep Chairs: Daniela Maria Cirillo, Stefan Niemann Lecture 1: Data complexity and standardization Stefan Niemann Lecture 2: A global initiative for a resistance SNP Encyclopedia Daniela Maria Cirillo Lecture 3: Whole-genome sequence data predicts drug-susceptibility and resistance – a large scale approach Timothy Walker Lecture 4: The future of Mycobacterium tuberculosis sequencing: direct from clinical Samples Dave Engelthaler 16:30-17:00 Symposia organized by Industry 16:30-17:00 Symposium: HAIN 16:30-16:45 Antibiotic resistance of nontuberculous Mycobacteria Emmanuelle Cambau and Faiza Mougari 16:45-17:00 Direct detection of Mycobacteria by the GenoType CM Gaby E. Pfyffer von Altishofen 17:00-17:30 Coffee break in the foyer and visit of the exhibition 17:30-18:00 Shuttle Bus from Bellevue Park Hotel to Splendid Palace 18:00-18:25 Opening session: • Congress President: Girts Skenders • President of the ESM: Stefan Niemann 18:25-18:30 Travel Grant Awards 18:30-19:15 Gertrud Meissner Award Lecture Chair: Stefan Niemann HOW CAN DIAGNOSTIC WHOLE-GENOME SEQUENCING FOR TB BECOME SUSTAINABLE? Claudio Köser (UK) 19:15-19:45 Gardner Middlebrook Award Ceremony Chairs: Gaby E. Pfyffer von Altishofen and Salman Siddiqi Lecture of the laureate 19:45 Welcome reception 22:00 Shuttle bus back to Bellevue Park Hotel Monday, 29.06.2015 Morning 9:00-10:45 Global perspective of TB diagnostics Chairs: Daniela Maria Cirillo, Hanna Soini 9:00-9:45 Guest lecture 1: New developments in diagnostics Catharina Boehme (Switzerland) 9:45-10:05 DNA AMPLIFICATION-BASED ASSAYS FOR RAPID DIAGNOSIS OF TUBERCULOSIS IN MOROCCO AND DETECTION OF MUTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH RIFAMPICIN RESISTANCE IN MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS (OP 1) El Mehdi Bentaleb, Mohammed ABID, Saaïd Amzazi, Hassan Ait Benhassou, Hassan Sefrioui 10:05-10:25 Evaluation of Fluorotype MTB for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex DNA in paraffin-embedded biopsies (OP 2) Zaira Moure, Josep Castellvi, Adrian Sánchez, Maria Concepción Marina, Maria Teresa Tortola Fernandez 10:25-10:45 A multicenter study on the new version of the genotype MTBDRsl assay for the detection of resistance to fluoroquinolones and second line injectable drugs (OP 3) Elisa Tagliani, Paolo Miotto, Andrea Maurizio Cabibbe, Emanuele Borroni, Juan Carlos Toro, Mikael Mansjö, Sven Hoffner, Doris Hillemann, Aksana Zalutskaya, Alena M. Skrahina, Daniela Maria Cirillo 10:45-11:15 Coffee break in the foyer and visit of the exhibition 11:15-13:15 Global perspective of TB diagnostics Chairs: Catharina Boehme, Girts Skenders 11:15-12:00 Guest lecture 2: GeneXpert rolL-out in South Africa: experience and impact Wendy Stevens (South Africa) 12:00-12:20 Tailored genotyping tools based on allele-specific PCRs targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain-specific SNPs obtained from whole genome sequencing data (OP 4) Laura Pérez-Lago, Miguel Martínez Lirola, Iñaki Comas, Marta Herranz, Santiago Izco, María Jesús Ruiz Serrano, Paula López Roa, Juan Carlos Momo, Lucía Biyé Ondó, Juan Eyene, Emilio Bouza, Darío García de Viedma 12:20-12:40 PhyResSE: Web-tool for antibiotic resistance and lineage discrimination based on whole genome sequencing data of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains (OP 5) Viola Schleusener, Silke Feuerriegel, Patrick Beckert, Thomas Kohl, Paolo Miotto, Andrea M. Cabibbe, Daniela Maria Cirillo, Stefan Niemann, Kurt Fellenberg 12:40-13:00 The value of microscopic-observation drug susceptibility (MODS) assay in the diagnosis of tuberculosis and detection of multidrug resistance (OP 6) Deniz Sertel Şelale, Meltem Uzun 13:00-14:00 Lunch in the foyer and visit of the exhibition Afternoon 14:00-15:00 Poster session 15:00-16:30 Drug resistance of M. tuberculosis Chairs: Patricia Del Portillo, Timothy Walker 15:00-15:45 Guest lecture 3: Understanding the MDR-TB in Eastern Europe: Whole genome evolution of clinical M. tuberculosis isolates Matthias Merker (Germany) 8 9 15:45-16:05 Molecular characteristics of PZA resistant strains from Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, a high burden MDR-TB setting (OP 7) Sarah Sengstake, Indra Bergval, Nino Bablishvili, Nestani Tukvadze, Jessica De Beer, Rusudan Aspindzelashvili, Dick van Soolingen, Richard Anthony 16:05-16:25 The role of MDR TB in emergence of retreatment tuberculosis cases (OP 8) Anda Nodieva, Inta Jansone, Ilva Pole, Girts Skenders, Matiss Bauskenieks, Ilze Morozova, Iveta Ozere, Vaira Leimane, Viesturs Baumanis, Renate Ranka 16:30-17:00 Coffee break in the foyer and visit of the exhibition 17:00-18:30 Drug resistance of M.tuberculosis Chairs: Anandi Martin, Igor Mokrousov 17:00-17:45 Guest lecture 4: Optimizing TB drug trials Michael Hölscher (Germany) 17:45-18:05 Pyrazinamide resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis fails to bite? (OP 9) Richard Anthony, Alice den Hertog, Sarah Sengstake 18:05-18:25 The role of the Beijing and H4/Ural genotypes in the epidemiology and treatment outcomes of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (OP 10) Valeriu Crudu, Elena Romancenco, Ecaterina Noroc, Liliana Domente, Sofia Alexandru, Dumitru Chesov, Viorel Soltan, Stefan Niemann, Christoph Lange, M. Merker, Richard Garfein, Timothy Rodwell, Antonino Catanzaro, Constantin Rimis 18:30 Shuttle bus from Bellevue Park Hotel to the Open Air museum 23:00 Shuttle bus back to Bellevue Park Hotel Tuesday, 30.06.2015 Morning 9:00-11:00 TB Epidemiology I Chairs: Leen Rigouts, Dick van Soolingen 9:00-9:45 Guest lecture 5: TB in children Marc Nicol (South Africa) 9:45-10:05 Ural family of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: not sleeping beast anymore? (OP 11) Igor Mokrousov 12:00-12:20 Insights from molecular typing into the rapidly evolving epidemiological landscape of tuberculosis in Sicily (OP14) Celestino Bonura, Michel Gomgnimbou, Guislaine Refrégier, Christophe Sola, Caterina Mammina 12:20-12:40 Complex genomic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Ethiopia (OP 15) Iñaki Comas, Sebastien Gagneux, David Stucki, Douglas Young, Abraham Aseffa, Stefan Berg 12:40-13:00 Comparative Intradermal Tuberculin Test in Dairy Cattle in the North of Ecuador and Risk Factors Associated with Bovine Tuberculosis in animal and humans (OP 16) Freddy Proano-Perez, Lenin Ron-Garrido, Ricardo Benitez-Capistros, Francoise Portaels, Leen Rigouts 13:00-14:00 Lunch in the foyer and visit of the exhibition Afternoon 14:00-15:00 Poster session 15:00-15:30 Coffee break in the foyer and visit of the exhibition 15:30-18:00 Special Topic “TB elimination” Chairs: Gaby Pfyffer, Sven Hoffner 15:30-16:15 Guest lecture 7: Can we reach the WHO End TB Global TB targets? A modelling analysis for South Africa, China and India Richard White (United Kingdom) 16:15-16:35 What have studies on the protein expression of Mycobacterium tuberculosis brought us? (OP 17) Jeroen de Keijzer 16:35-16:55 Identification of mutations affecting candidate genes potentially involved in phenotypic resistance to bedaquiline and delamanid in M. Tuberculosis (OP 18) Simone Battaglia, Andrea Maurizio Cabibbe, Elisa Schena, Emanuele Borroni, Paolo Miotto, Daniela Cirillo 16:55-17:15 Detection of pyrazinamide heteroresistance in M. Tuberculosis (OP19) Jim Werngren, Mikaela Glader, Sven Hoffner 17:15-18:00 General assembly 18:30 Optional: Sight-Seeing Tour through Riga 10:05-10:20 Map African TB - Population structure and evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in Africa (OP 12) Patrick Beckert, Ellen Bruske, Florian Gehre, Elisabeth Sanchez-Padilla, Véronique N. Penlap Beng, Abraham Alabi, Bertrand Lell, Thomas A. Kohl, Francine Ntoumi, Matthias Frank, Maryline Bonnet, Bouke C. de Jong, Andrea Rachow, Michael Hölscher, Stefan Niemann 20:00 Party at the Bellevue Park Hotel 10:20-10:40 Challenges in setting-up molecular diagnostic tools for tuberculosis drug resistance detection and epidemiology studies in low-income countries (OP 13) Voahangy Rasolofo, Marie Sylvianne Rabodoarivelo, Noël Ratovonirina, Solohery Razafimahatratra, Juan Carlos Palomino, Christophe Sola, Fanjasoa Rakotomanana, Anandi Martin Wednesday, 01.07.2015 10:45-11:15 Coffee break in the foyer and visit of the exhibition 11:15-13:00 TB Epidemiology II Chairs: Sebastien Gagneux, Stefan Niemann 11.15-12.00 Guest lecture 6: TB transmission in Western European settings Thimothy Walker (United Kingdom) 10 Morning 9:00-11:00Host – Pathogen Interaction Chairs: Mark Nicol, Richard Anthony 9:00-9:45 Guest lecture 8: Linking M. tuberculosis complex population structure with pathobiology Sebastien Gagneux (Switzerland) 9:45-10:05 The impact of lipids in the global genetic expression of Mycobacterium tuberculosis during its adaptation to dormancy (OP 20) Diana Angelica Aguilar Ayala, Dieter De Coninck, Dieter Deforce, Filip Van Nieuwerburgh, Juan Carlos Palomino, Peter Vandamme, Jorge González Y Merchand, Anandi Martin 11 10:05-10:25 Ms1, a novel sRNA interacting with the RNAP core in mycobacteria (OP 24) Libor Krásný, Jarmila Hnilicová, Michaela Šiková, Martina Janoušková, Jiří Pospíšil 10:25-10:45 CXCL9, CXCL10, and IL6 cytokines as potential biomarkers of treatment response in pulmonary TB patients (OP 22) Vladyslav Nikolayevskyy, Yanina Balabanova, Irina Kontsevaya, Olga Ignatyeva, Edita Pimkina, Girts Skenders, Francis Drobniewski LIST OF LECTURES L1 Data complexity and standardization Stefan Niemann L2 A global initiative for a resistance SNP Encyclopedia Daniela Maria Cirillo 10:45-11:05 Evidence for Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis specific zinc transport systems (OP 23) Elke Eckelt, Ralph Goethe, Jochen Meens, Michael Jarek 11:05-11:30 Coffee break in the foyer and visit of the exhibition 11:30-13:45 Environmental mycobacteria Chairs: Suzana David, Darío García de Viedma 11:30-12:15 Guest lecture 9: NTM - update 2015 Enrico Tortoli (Italy) L4 The future of Mycobacterium tuberculosis sequencing: direct from clinical samples Dave Engelthaler 12:15-12:35 Preliminary in silico-based insights on the functionality of CRISPR-Cas in M. tu bercul osis complex (OP 21) Guislaine Refrégier, Matthieu Petrou, Christophe Sola LIST OF GUEST LECTURES 12:35-12:55 Incidence and diversity of nontuberculous mycobacteria in Moscow region (OP 25) Maria Alvarez Figueroa, Valentina Barilo, Anastasiya Prokopenko GL1 New developments in diagnostics Catharina Boehme 12:55-13:15 First genotyping study of clinical and environmental Mycobacterium ulcerans isolates from French Guiana reveals unprecedented genetic diversity (OP 26) Yann Reynaud, Julie Millet, David Couvin, Aaron Morris, Rodolphe Gozlan, Jean-François Guéguan, Nalin Rastogi, Pierre Couppié , Eric Legrand 13:15-13:25 Analysis of Mycobacterium abscessus Genetic Variability provided by 14-locus Variable-Number Tandem-Repeat in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis (OP 27) Alberto Trovato, Daniela Maria Cirillo, Rossella Baldan, Enrico Tortoli, Stefan Niemann, Giovanni Taccetti, Silvia Campana, Lisa Cariani, Paola Maria Rancoita, Thomas Kohl, Tullia Simonetti 13:30- 13:45 Poster Price awards 13:45-14:00 Closing remarks L3 Whole-genome sequence data predicts drug-susceptibility and resistance – a large scale approach Timothy Walker GL2 GeneXpert roLl-out in South Africa: experience and impact Wendy Stevens GL3 Understanding the MDR-TB in Eastern Europe: Whole genome evolution of clinical M. tuberculosis isolates Matthias Merker GL4 Optimizing TB drug trials Michael Hölscher GL5 Guest lecture 5: TB in children Marc Nicol GL6 TB transmission in Western European settings Timothy Walker GL7 Can we reach the WHO End TB Global TB targets? A modelling analysis for South Africa, China and India Richard White GL8 Linking M. tuberculosis complex population structure with pathobiology Sebastien Gagneux GL9 NTM – update 2015 Enrico Tortoli Gertrud meissner award How can diagnostic whole-genome sequencing for TB become sustainable? Claudio Köser 12 13 LIST OF ORAL PRESENTATIONS (OP) GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE OF TB DIAGNOSTICS OP 1 DNA AMPLIFICATION-BASED ASSAYS FOR RAPID DIAGNOSIS OF TuBERCuLOSIS IN MOROCCO AND DETECTION OF MuTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITh RIFAMPICIN RESISTANCE IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS El Mehdi Bentaleb, Mohammed Abid, Saaïd Amzazi, Hassan Ait Benhassou, Hassan Sefrioui OP 2 EVALuATION OF FLuOROTYPE MTB FOR ThE DETECTION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx DNA IN PARAFFIN-EMBEDDED BIOPSIES zaira Moure, josep Castellvi, Adrian Sánchez, Maria Concepción Marina, Maria teresa tortola Fernandez OP 3 A MuLTICENTER STuDY ON ThE NEW VERSION OF ThE GENOTYPE MTBDRsl ASSAY FOR ThE DETECTION OF RESISTANCE TO FLuOROquINOLONES AND SECOND LINE INjECTABLE DRuGS Elisa tagliani, Paolo Miotto, Andrea Maurizio Cabibbe, Emanuele Borroni, juan Carlos toro, Mikael Mansjö, Sven Hoffner, Doris Hillemann, Aksana zalutskaya, Alena M. Skrahina, Daniela Maria Cirillo OP 4 TAILORED GENOTYPING TOOLS BASED ON ALLELE-SPECIFIC PCRs TARGETING MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS STRAIN-SPECIFIC SNPs OBTAINED FROM WhOLE GENOME SEquENCING DATA Laura Pérez-Lago, Miguel Martínez Lirola, Iñaki Comas, Marta Herranz, Santiago Izco, María jesús Ruiz Serrano, Paula López Roa, juan Carlos Momo, Lucía Biyé ondó, juan Eyene, Emilio Bouza, Darío García de viedma OP 5 PhyResSE: WEB -TOOL FOR ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE AND LINEAGE DISCRIMINATION BASED ON WhOLE GENOME SEquENCING DATA OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx STRAINS viola Schleusener, Silke Feuerriegel, Patrick Beckert, thomas kohl, Paolo Miotto, Andrea M. Cabibbe, Daniela Maria Cirillo, Stefan Niemann, kurt Fellenberg OP 6 ThE VALuE OF MICROSCOPIC-OBSERVATION DRuG SuSCEPTIBILITY (MODS) ASSAY IN ThE DIAGNOSIS OF TuBERCuLOSIS AND DETECTION OF MuLTIDRuG RESISTANCE Deniz Sertel Şelale, Meltem uzun 14 DRuG RESISTANCE OF M.tuberculosis OP 7 MOLECuLAR ChARACTERISTICS OF PZA RESISTANT STRAINS FROM TBILISI, REPuBLIC OF GEORGIA, A hIGh BuRDEN MDR-TB SETTING Sarah Sengstake, Indra Bergval, Nino Bablishvili, Nestani tukvadze, jessica De Beer, Rusudan Aspindzelashvili, Dick van Soolingen, Richard Anthony OP 8 ThE ROLE OF MDR TB IN EMERGENCE OF RETREATMENT TuBERCuLOSIS CASES Anda Nodieva, Inta jansone, Ilva Pole, Girts Skenders, Matiss Bauskenieks, Ilze Morozova, Iveta ozere, vaira Leimane, viesturs Baumanis, Renate Ranka OP 9 PYRAZINAMIDE RESISTANCE IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS FAILS TO BITE? Richard Anthony, Alice den Hertog, Sarah Sengstake OP 10 ThE ROLE OF ThE BEIjING AND h4/uRAL GENOTYPES IN ThE EPIDEMIOLOGY AND TREATMENT OuTCOMES OF MuLTIDRuG-RESISTANT TuBERCuLOSIS valeriu Crudu, Elena Romancenco, Ecaterina Noroc, Liliana Domente, Sofia Alexandru, Dumitru Chesov, viorel Soltan, Stefan Niemann, Christoph Lange, M. Merker, Richard Garfein, timothy Rodwell, Antonino Catanzaro, Constantin Rimis TB EPIDEMIOLOGY I OP 11 uRAL FAMILY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS: NOT SLEEPING BEAST ANYMORE? Igor Mokrousov OP 12 MAP AFRICAN TB - POPuLATION STRuCTuRE AND EVOLuTION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx IN AFRICA Patrick Beckert, Ellen Bruske, Florian Gehre, Elisabeth Sanchez-Padilla, véronique N. Penlap Beng, Abraham Alabi, Bertrand Lell, thomas A. kohl, Francine Ntoumi, Matthias Frank, Maryline Bonnet, Bouke C. de jong, Andrea Rachow, Michael Hölscher, Stefan Niemann OP 13 ChALLENGES IN SETTING-uP MOLECuLAR DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS FOR TuBERCuLOSIS DRuG RESISTANCE DETECTION AND EPIDEMIOLOGY STuDIES IN LOW-INCOME COuNTRIES voahangy Rasolofo, Marie Sylvianne Rabodoarivelo, Noël Ratovonirina, Solohery Razafimahatratra, juan Carlos Palomino, Christophe Sola, Fanjasoa Rakotomanana, Anandi Martin 15 TB EPIDEMIOLOGY II OP 14 INSIGhTS FROM MOLECuLAR TYPING INTO ThE RAPIDLY EVOLVING EPIDEMIOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE OF TuBERCuLOSIS IN SICILY Celestino Bonura, Michel Gomgnimbou, Guislaine Refrégier, Christophe Sola, Caterina Mammina OP 15 COMPLEx GENOMIC DIVERSITY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS IN EThIOPIA Iñaki Comas, Sebastien Gagneux, David Stucki, Douglas young, Abraham Aseffa, Stefan Berg OP 16 COMPARATIVE INTRADERMAL TuBERCuLIN TEST IN DAIRY CATTLE IN ThE NORTh OF ECuADOR AND RISk FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITh BOVINE TuBERCuLOSIS IN ANIMAL AND huMANS Freddy Proano-Perez, Lenin Ron-Garrido, Ricardo Benitez-Capistros, Francoise Portaels, Leen Rigouts SPECIAL TOPIC “TB ELIMINATION” OP 17 WhAT hAVE STuDIES ON ThE PROTEIN ExPRESSION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS BROuGhT uS? jeroen de keijzer, P. de Haas, A. Mulder, j. de Beer, A. de Ru, P. van veelen, Dick van Soolingen OP 18 IDENTIFICATION OF MuTATIONS AFFECTING CANDIDATE GENES POTENTIALLY INVOLVED IN PhENOTYPIC RESISTANCE TO BEDAquILINE AND DELAMANID IN M. TuBERCuLOSIS Simone Battaglia, Andrea Maurizio Cabibbe, Elisa Schena, Emanuele Borroni, Paolo Miotto, Daniela Cirillo OP 19 DETECTION OF PYRAZINAMIDE hETERORESISTANCE IN M. TuBERCuLOSIS Jim Werngren, Mikaela Glader, Sven Hoffner OP 21 PRELIMINARY IN SILICO-BASED INSIGhTS ON ThE FuNCTIONALITY OF CRISPRCas IN M. TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx Guislaine Refrégier, Matthieu Petrou, Christophe Sola OP 22 CxCL9, CxCL10, AND IL6 CYTOkINES AS POTENTIAL BIOMARkERS OF TREATMENT RESPONSE IN PuLMONARY TB PATIENTS vladyslav Nikolayevskyy, yanina Balabanova, Irina kontsevaya, olga Ignatyeva, Edita Pimkina, Girts Skenders4, Francis Drobniewski OP 23 EVIDENCE FOR MYCOBACTERIuM AVIuM SSP. PARATuBERCuLOSIS SPECIFIC ZINC TRANSPORT SYSTEMS Elke Eckelt, Ralph Goethe, jochen Meens, Michael jarek ENVIRONMENTAL MYCOBACTERIA OP 24 Ms1, A NOVEL sRNA INTERACTING WITh ThE RNAP CORE IN MYCOBACTERIA Libor krásný, jarmila Hnilicová, Michaela Šiková, Martina janoušková, jiří Pospíšil OP 25 INCIDENCE AND DIVERSITY OF NONTuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA IN MOSCOW REGION Maria Alvarez Figueroa, valentina Barilo, Anastasiya Prokopenko OP 26 FIRST GENOTYPING STuDY OF CLINICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MYCOBACTERIuM uLCERANS ISOLATES FROM FRENCh GuIANA REVEALS uNPRECEDENTED GENETIC DIVERSITY yann Reynaud, julie Millet, David Couvin, Aaron Morris, Rodolphe Gozlan, jeanFrançois Guéguan, Nalin Rastogi, Pierre Couppié , Eric Legrand OP 27 ANALYSIS OF MYCOBACTERIuM ABSCESSuS GENETIC VARIABILITY PROVIDED BY 14-LOCuS VARIABLE-NuMBER TANDEM-REPEAT IN PATIENTS WITh CYSTIC FIBROSIS Alberto Trovato, Daniela Maria Cirillo, Rossella Baldan, Enrico tortoli, Stefan Niemann, Giovanni taccetti, Silvia Campana, Lisa Cariani, Paola Maria Rancoita, thomas kohl, Tullia Simonetti hOST – PAThOGEN INTERACTION OP 20 ThE IMPACT OF LIPIDS IN ThE GLOBAL GENETIC ExPRESSION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS DuRING ITS ADAPTATION TO DORMANCY Diana Angelica Aguilar Ayala, Dieter De Coninck, Dieter Deforce, Filip van Nieuwerburgh, juan Carlos Palomino, Peter vandamme, jorge González y Merchand, Anandi Martin 16 17 LIST OF POSTER PRESENTATIONS (P) DRuG RESISTANCE OF M.tuberculosis P7 inhA AND katG MuTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITh ISONIAZID RESISTANCE IN A CANADIAN PROVINCE Sara Christianson, Meenu Sharma, David Long, Hong zhou, zhiwei Gao, Courtney Heffernan, Richard Long, Joyce Wolfe P8 INVASTIGATION OF PRIMARY ANTITuBERCuLOSIS DRuG RESISTANCE uSING BACTEC MGIT 960 SYSTEM IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx STRAINS Ilhan Afsar, yusuf Saglam, Selcuk kaya, Mustafa Demirci P 15 PERFORMANCE OF FOuR TRANSPORT AND STORAGE SuPPORTS FOR MOLECuLAR DETECTION OF MuLTIDRuG RESISTANT TuBERCuLOSIS Marie Sylvianne Rabodoarivelo, Belen Imperiale, Angela Brandao, Parveen kumar, Sarman Singh, Lucilaine Ferrazoli, Nora Morcillo, voahangy Rasolofo, juan Carlos Palomino, Peter vandamme, Anandi Martin P 19 IN VITRO ANTI-MYCOBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF SELECTED MEDICINAL PLANTS AGAINST MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS AND MYCOBACTERIuM BOVIS STRAINS Abdella Gemechu, Mirutse Gidaqy, Gobena Ameni, Adane Worku P 102 PREVALENCE OF BEIjING GENOTYPE AMONG MDR ISOLATES OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS FROM POLAND Monika kozińska, Ewa Augustynowicz kopeć, Sylwia Brzezińska, Agnieszka Napiórkowska, Anna zabost P 113 MOLECuLAR INVESTIGATION OF MuTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITh RIFAMPICIN AND ISONIAZID RESISTANCE IN CLINICAL ISOLATES OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx IN MODENA, ITALY Giulia Fregni Serpini, Sara tagliazucchi, Francesca Frascaro, Antonella Grottola, Nadia Nanni, Giulia Forbicini, Rita Magnani, William Gennari, Anna Fabio, Fabio Rumpianesi, Monica Pecorari P 114 COMPLETE GENOME SEquENCE OF ThE MuLTIDRuG-RESISTANT BEIjING-LIkE STRAIN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS 323 uSING ThE PacBio REAL-TIME SEquENCING PLATFORM juan Germán Rodríguez, Camilo Pino, Andreas tauch, Martha I Murcia 18 P 129 POPuLATION STRuCTuRE OF MuLTIDRuG-RESISTANT MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS ISOLATES Claudia Llerena Polo, Martha I Murcia, juan Germán Rodríguez, julio Guerra P 156 GENOTYPING AuTOMATIZATION: PRELIMINARY RESuLTS ON FIRST AND SECOND-LINE DRuG RESISTANCE DETECTION IN M. TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx Harrison Magdinier Gomes, Bernice klotoe, Barbara Molina, jose Dominguez, Ali Sajid, Maria Helena Feres Saad, Michel kiréopori Gomgnimbou, Christophe Sola P 175 PhENOTYPIC FLuOROquINOLONE SuSCEPTIBILITY TESTING IN M. TuBERCuLOSIS COMPARING REMA, MGIT 960 AND SOLID MEDIuM Nele Coeck, Bouke de jong, Leen Rigouts P 191 PhENOTYPIC AND GENOTYPIC INVESTIGATION OF MuLTIDRuG RESISTANCE (MDR) AND ExTENSIVELY DRuG RESISTANCE (xDR) IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS STRAINS ISOLATED FROM CLINICAL SAMPLES IN CukuROVA REGION, TuRkIYE togrul Nagiyev, Emel yarar, Begum Kayar, Farhad kohansal, Gulfer yakici, taylan Bozok, Fatih koksal P 192 INVESTIGATION OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ChARACTERISTICS AND MOLECuLAR MEChANISMS OF MOxIFLOxACIN RESISTANCE IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS STRAINS ISOLATED FROM PuLMONARY TuBERCuLOSIS PATIENTS taylan Bozok, Begum Kayar, Gulfer yakici, Mahdi Marzi, togrul Nagiyev, Emel yarar, Firat karsli, Fatih koksal P 193 FLuROquINOLONE hETERORESISTANCE Leen Rigouts, Mirjam Schats, Nele Coeck, Bouke de jong P 196 MuTATION ANALYSIS OF MYCOBACTERIAL RPOB GENES AND EVALuATING MICS FOR RIFAMPIN IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS STRAINS ISOLATED FROM SPuTuM SAMPLES OF PuLMONARY TuBERCuLOSIS PATIENTS Begum Kayar, taylan Bozok, Adnan Atilgan, Fatih koksal P 203 INCIDENCE OF DRuG RESISTANT TuBERCuLOSIS IN RuRAL hAITI: A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS R. justin May, Md. Siddiqur Rahman khan, Madsen Beau de Rochars, Michael Lauzardo P 214 ROLE OF PuTATIVE EFFLux GENE Rv0194 IN DRuG RESISTANCE IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS Anshika Narang, Astha Giri, Mridula Bose, Mandira varma-Basil 19 P 215 DRuG-RESISTANT TuBERCuLOSIS IN CROATIA, 2010-2014 Mihaela obrovac, Ljiljana zmak, vera katalinic-jankovic ENVIRONMENTAL MYCOBACTERIA P 39 IN VITRO ACTIVITIES OF EDP-420 AND EDP-322 AGAINST SEVERAL NONTuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA Carolyn Shoen, Mary Sklaney, Michael Cynamon P 44 RNA AND PROTEIN INTERACTING PARTNERS OF MYCOBACTERIuM SMEGMATIS RNAP jiří Pospíšil, jarmila Hnilicová, Martina janoušková, Libor krásný P 46 GENE AND GENOME ANALYSIS INDICATES ThAT ThE STRAIN jS623 IS WRONGLY CONSIDERED A MEMBER OF ThE SPECIES MYCOBACTERIuM SMEGMATIS Maria jesus Garcia, S. Gola P 86 NEW GENOME SEquENCE OF A MAP ShEEP STRAIN: jIII-386 FROM GERMANY // ANNOTATION AND COMPARISON WITh PuBLIShED MAP-S AND MAP-C STRAINS Petra Möbius, Martin Hölzer, Marius Felder, Gabriele Nordsiek, Marco Groth, Heike köhler, katrin Reichwald, Matthias Platzer, Manja Marz P 96 IN VITRO ACTIVITIES OF BEDAquILINE AGAINST NON-TuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA Diana Angelica Aguilar Ayala, jorge Gonzalez y Merchand, koen Andries, Peter vandamme, juan Carlos Palomino, Anandi Martin P 120 IDENTIFICATION OF NON-TuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA CLINICAL ISOLATES BY TANDEM DNA SEquENCING AND MALDI-TOF MS PROTEIN ANALYSIS johana Monteserin, Roxana Paul, Margo Cnockaert, Maria Belén orandoni, Beatriz Lopez, Palomino juan Carlos, Peter vandamme, viviana Ritacco, Anandi Martin P 121 MASTITIS IN COWS CAuSED BY MYCOBACTERIuM FORTuITuM – A NEW MOMENT IN DIAGNOSTICS AND TREATMENT Silvio Spicic, Miroslav Benić Benić, Gordan kompes, vera katalinić-janković, Maja zdelar-tuk, Irena Reil, Sanja Duvnjak, Mateja Pate, Luka Cvetnić, Željko Cvetnić 20 P 174 DECIPhERING ThE VIRuLENCE FACTORS OF ThE OPPORTuNISTIC PAThOGEN MYCOBACTERIuM COLOMBIENSE Monica Natalia Gonzalez Perez, Martha I Murcia, Carlos Parra-Lopez, jochen Blom, Andreas Tauch P 189 DETERMINATION OF DISTRIBuTION AND ANTIBIOTIC SuSCEPTIBILITY OF NONTuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA (NTM) SPECIES IN CLINICAL SAMPLES FROM ThE CukuROVA REGION, TuRkIYE togrul Nagiyev, Farhad kohansal, Emel yarar, Begum Kayar, taylan Bozok, Gulfer yakici, Fatih koksal GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE OF TB DIAGNOSTICS P 16 COMPARISON OF GENExPERT MTB ASSAY AND CONVENTIONAL CuLTuRE METhODS FOR ThE DIAGNOSIS OF TuBERCuLOSIS Ilhan Afsar, Aslı Gamze Sener, Selcuk kaya P 32 EVALuATION OF SPEED-OLIGO DIRECT TB CASSETTE FOR DIRECT DETECTION OF M. TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx FROM SPuTuM SPECIMENS Abiy Aklilu, Abenezer Feleke, Chala Chaburte, Boja Dufera, Silvia Blanco, Pablo Mendoza P 65 COMPARISON OF RAPID MGIT TBC IDENTIFICATION TEST AND MYCOLIC ACID ANALYSIS BY hIGh PERFORMANCE LIquID ChROMATOGRAPhY FOR CONFIRMATION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx Ilhan Afsar, yusuf Saglam, Erkan yula, Aslı Gamze Sener, Huseyin Baskin, Selcuk kaya P 66 RELATIONAL SEquENCING TB DATA PLATFORM (ReSeqTB): GLOBAL COLLABORATIVE EFFORT TO BuILD A CENTRALIZED RELATIONAL DATABASE FOR INVESTIGATING ThE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN M. TuBERCuLOSIS GENOTYPES AND DRuG RESISTANCE Paolo Miotto, David Dolinger, timothy Rodwell, Angela Starks, Daniel johnson, Marco Schito, Matteo zignol, Stefan Niemann, Daniela M. Cirillo P 79 COMPARISON OF TWO NEW TRANSCRIPTION-REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION CONCERTED REACTION METhODS (TRCR-160 M.TB and TRCR-80) FOR RAPID DETECTION OF M. TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx IN RESPIRATORY SPECIMENS Antonio Mazzarelli, Maria Grazia Paglia, Alessandro Piscini, ornella Butera, Eugenio Bordi, Silvia D’Arezzo, Antonella vulcano, Carolina venditti, Carla Nisii, Antonino Di Caro 21 P 118 Increasing Mycobacterial growth using TiKa supplements Tulika Munshi, Kai Hilpert, Tim Bull P 126 Our first results with the GeneXpert MTB/RIF System® Maria Müllerová P 188 Application of In vivo Microbial Antigen Discovery (InMAD) for the identification of M. tuberculosis circulating antigens in an experimental murine model Iris Estrada-García, Bibiana Patricia Ruiz-Sánchez, Jessica Castañeda-Casimiro, Alejandro Francisco-Cruz, Jeanet Serafín López, Isabel Wong-Baeza, Dulce MataEspinosa, Rogelio Hernández-Pando, Sergio Estrada Parra P 135 Detection of latent tuberculosis in HIV-infected patients from simon bolivar and santa clara hospitals at bogotá, colombia Martha I Murcia, Francy Johanna Pérez Llanos, Magda Beltrán, Liliana Sánchez, Carlos Parra-López, Myriam Navarrete, Angélica Knudson, Ricardo Sánchez P 199 Evaluation of the FluoroType® MTB Assay for use with Nondecontaminated Specimens at the Irish Mycobacteria Reference Laboratory (IMRL) Philomena Raftery, Margaret Fitzgibbon P 136 Mycobacterial infections in HIV-infected individuals in bogotá, colombia Juan Germán Rodríguez, Martha I Murcia, Magda Beltrán, Francy Johanna Pérez Llanos, Liliana Sánchez, Carlos Parra-López, Myriam Navarrete, Angélica Knudson, Ricardo Sánchez P 216 The Efficiency and Reliability of Commercial TK L Anti Tb PNB Kit for Rapid Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Susceptibility Testing Ismail Ceyhan, Zehra Ortarık, Resul Altınsoy P 138 A Post Implementation Review of the Cepheid Xpert MTB RIF Assay Version G4 for the Diagnosis of Pulmonary and Extra-Pulmonary Tuberculosis in a Large Acute Tertiary Care Institute Azhar Hamdan, Justine Woei Ling Peh, Yen Ee Tan, Li-Hwei Sng P 141 Diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from pleural fluid in Bogota, Colombia Martha I Murcia, Saray Ossa, Juan Germán Rodríguez P 145 Undiagnosed Tuberculous Osteomyelitis of the tibia caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex; A Case Report Gülnur Tarhan, Sadık Akgun, Abdülkadir Sari, Hakan Sayiner, Bülent Petik, Ismail AĞIR, H.İbrahim Erdoğdu, Şükrü Mehmet Ertürk P 153 “TB-SPRINT” on sputum DNA extracts from Ethiopia: first comparison to GeneXpert and Genotype MTBDRplus Barbara Molina-Moya, Silvia Blanco, Mulualem Agonafir, Michel Gomgnimbou, Lizania Spinasse, Guislaine Refrégier, Daniel Datiko, Luis Cuevas, Jose Dominguez, Christophe Sola P 162 Comparative and computational analysis of Russian M. bovis BCG strain Ruslan Ludannyy, Maria Alvarez Figueroa, Diana Levi, Natalia Aleksandrova, Michail Markelov, Vladimir Dedkov, German Shipulin 22 P 23 The sigma factor SigD of Mycobacterium tuberculosis enhances the transcriptional expression of the septum site determining protein in stationary phase Nora Rios-Sarabia, Miguel Angel Ares, Jorge Gonzalez-y-Merchand P 38 Phagocyte cells bactericide characteristics in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis Marina Dyakova, Olga Titarenko, Diljara Esmedlyaeva, Viatcheslav Zhuravlev P 45 Participation of non-coding RNAs in the adaptation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to a lipid environment M Ares, Maria Carmen Menendez, JG Rodriguez, AC Hernandez, J Gonzales-yMerchand, C Helguera, JR Bustos, JM Anzola, MM Zambrano, MJ Garcia, P Del Portillo P 97 The growth rate of the strains Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing isolated before and during treatment and in the time of passages on Lowenstein-Jensen medium Olga Manicheva, Marine Dogonadze, Natalia Melnikova, Viatcheslav Zhuravlev, Anna Zmaznova, Anna Vyazovaya, Igor Mokrousov, Olga Narvskaya, Boris Vishnevskiy P 109 Mycobacterium tuberculosis dormancy: a systematic study Barbara Tizzano, Stefan Niemann P 210 Recognition of ZnT8, proinsulin and homologous MAP peptides in Sardinian children at risk of T1D precedes detection of classical islet autoantibodies Leonardo A Sechi, Magda Niegowska, Daniela Paccagnini 23 TB EPIDEMIOLOGY P 30 GENOTYPING OF MuLTIDRuG RESISTANT MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS ISOLATES IN jALISCO MExICO Gladys Lopez-Avalos, Martin Lopez-Rodriguez, Manuel Sandoval-Diaz, juan Carlos villanueva-Arias, Carlos vázquez-Chacon, Ikuri Alvarez-Maya P 51 MONITORING OF MYCOBACTERIuM BOVIS FROM FREE-RANGING WILDLIFE IN SOuTh kOREA yun-Ho jang, Soyoon Ryoo, yoonra jang, Narae kim, jin kyoung kim, Hang Lee, Soyoung Park, Woong-seog Song, jong-taek kim, Soo Hee Lee, jae Myung kim P 67 MOLECuLAR SNAPShOT OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS POPuLATION IN REPuBLIC OF kARELIA, RuSSIAN FEDERATION Anna vyazovaya, Natalia Solovieva, julia kononenko, Natalia Melnikova, tatiana Sunchalina, Daria Starkova, Igor Mokrousov, viatcheslav zhuravlev, olga Narvskaya P 84 PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF MOLECuLAR GENOTYPING OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS FOR ThE TuBERCuLOSIS CONTROL IN ThE COuNTRY Iveta ozere, Inta jansone, Ilva Pole, Girts Skenders, Anda Nodieva, Anita Skangale, olga Bobrikova, zita Lauska, Ruta Pastare, Nina Gusarevica, Margarita Baumane, Matiss Bauskenieks, Renate Ranka, viesturs Baumanis P 100 LABORATORY CROSS CONTAMINATION – MOLECuLAR EVIDENCE OF FALSEPOSITIVE CuLTuRES OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS Ewa Augustynowicz kopeć, Monika kozińska, katarzyna Wasiak, Anna Borek, Dagmara Borkowska, Magdalena klatt P 101 ExPLORING ThE SOCIODEMOGRAPhIC AND CLINICAL FEATuRES OF ExTRAPuLMONARY TuBERCuLOSIS IN SAuDI ARABIA Sahal Al-Hajoj Al-Nakhli, Bright varghese P 142 DIRECT SPOLIGOTYPING ON DNA ExTRACTED FROM MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS POSITIVE ZIEhL-NEELSEN STAINED SLIDES FROM EThIOPIA Barbara Molina-Moya, Silvia Blanco, Mulualem Agonafir, Michel Gomgnimbou, Lizania Spinasse, Meissiner Gomes, Guislaine Refrégier, Daniel Datiko, Luis Cuevas, jose Dominguez, Christophe Sola P 149 GENETIC DIVERSITY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS IN NIGERIA BASED ON SPOLIGOTYPING ON DNA ExTRACTED FROM POSITIVE ZIEhL-NEELSENSTAINED SLIDES Barbara Molina-Moya, Silvia Blanco, Michel Gomgnimbou, Lizania Spinasse, Meissiner Gomes, Guislaine Refrégier, Luis Cuevas, Lovett Lawson, Saddiq t. Abdurrahman, joshua obasanya, jose Dominguez, Christophe Sola 24 P 163 CLONAL COMPLExITY IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS IS MORE ThAN AN ANECDOTAL FINDING: 2 ExAMPLES OF hOW IT ChALLENGES STANDARD DIAGNOSTIC PRACTICE Laura Pérez-Lago, Miguel Martínez Lirola, yurena Navarro, Marta Herranz, María jesús Ruiz Serrano, Pilar Miralles, Emilio Bouza, Darío García de viedma P 166 INTERLABORATORY EVALuATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF qIAxcel ADVANCED SYSTEM FOR MIRu-VNTR TYPING OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS Alberto Trovato, Broda Agnieszka, Emanuele Borroni, vladyslav NIkolayevskyy, Francis Drobniewski, Daniela Maria Cirillo P 169 DISTINCT MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS SPOLIGOTYPES-RELICTS OR INVASIVE STRAINS IN LATVIA Ilva Pole, Girts Skenders, Inta jansone, viktorija Igumnova, janis Pjalkovskis, Anda Nodieva, Iveta ozere, vija Riekstina, Renate Ranka P 176 INVESTIGATING MICROEVOLuTION OF M. TuBERCuLOSIS DuRING TRANSMISSION Anzaan Dippenaar, Margaretha de vos, Ruben van der Merwe, Gian van der Spuy, Rob Warren, Samantha Sampson, Paul van Helden, Arnab Pain P 179 WhOLE GENOME SEquENCE OF MYCOBACTERIuM SuRICATTAE, ThE MAIN CAuSE OF TuBERCuLOSIS IN MEERkATS (SuRICATA SuRICATTA) Anzaan Dippenaar, Sven Parsons, julian Drewe, Abdallah Abdallah, Ruben van der Merwe, keith Siame, Alan Christoffels, Samantha Sampson, Nico Gey van Pittius, Paul van Helden, Rob Warren, Arnab Pain P 181 hIGh-ThROuGhPuT MYCOBACTERIAL INTERSPERSED REPETITIVE uNIT– VARIABLE NuMBER TANDEM-REPEAT GENOTYPING FOR MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STuDIES Marie Gauthier, Floriane Bidault, Amandine Mosnier, Nino Bablishvili, Nestani tukvadze, Silaphet Somphavong, Phimpha Paboriboune, oksana ocheretina, jean William Pape, Glaucia Paranhos-Baccala, jean-Luc Berland P 182 DETECTING PSEuDO-BEIjING M. TuBERCuLOSIS ISOLATES uSING TBMINER Memona yasmin, jérôme Azé, Rubina tabassum, Sabira tahseen, Shahid Abbasi, Naeem Akthar, Riwan Iqbal, Christophe Sola, Guislaine Refrégier P 194 DECIPhERING TuBERCuLOSIS DYNAMICS IN EAST GREENLAND: GENOME BASED MOLECuLAR EPIDEMIOLOGY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS IN A hIGh INCIDENCE, LOW DIVERSITY SETTING karen Bjorn-Mortensen, Aase Bengaard Andersen, karin Ladefoged, Bolette Soborg, Anders koch, troels Lillebaek, Thomas Kohl, Stefan Niemann 25 P 195 COMPARISON OF IS6110, MIRu-VNTR AND SPOLIGOTYPING METhODS WhICh ARE uSED FOR ASSOCIATING OF PhYLOGENETIC RELATIONS OF MuLTI DRuG RESISTANT (MDR) MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS ISOLATES Gulfer yakici, Begum Kayar, taylan Bozok, togrul Nagiyev, Mahdi Marzi, Emel yarar, Fatih koksal P 200 SPOLIGOTYPES OF Mycobacterium tuberculosis ISOLATES FROM PATIENTS RESIDENTS IN STATE OF PARá, BRAZIL Emilyn Conceição, Maria Luiza Lopes, Ismari Perini Furlaneto, Harrison Gomes Magdinier, Philip Noel Suffys, Nalin Rastogi, David Couvin, Rafael Silva Duarte, karla valéria Batista Lima P 204 MISCLASSIFICATION BY SPOLIGOTYPING: MuLTI-DRuG RESISTANT MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS OF ThE LATIN AMERICAN MEDITERANEAN LINEAGE WRONGLY IDENTIFIED AS MYCOBACTERIuM PINNIPEDII (ST863) Elis R. Dalla Costa, Sidra E. G. vasconcelos, Leonardo Esteves, Harrison M. Gomes, Lia L. Gomes Fiocruz, Pedro E. A. Silva, joão Perdigão, Miguel viveiros, Gisela unis, Nalin Rastogi, Maria Lucia R. Rossetti, Philip Noel Suffys P223 CLuSTER IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS OF CLINICAL MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS ISOLATES IN ThE STATE OF hAWAII kent koster, Lishi qian, Caitlin Flores, terry Weber, Richard Brostrom, jeffrey Foster, James Douglas SPECIAL TOPIC “TB ELIMINATION” P 127 ANALYTICAL SENSITIVITY (LIMIT OF DETECTION), ANALYTICAL REACTIVITY (INCLuSIVITY) AND ANALYTICAL SPECIFICITY (CROSS-REACTIVITY) OF ThE BD MAx MDR-TB ASSAY FOR ThE DETECTION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx AND RIFAMPICIN AND ISONIAZID RESISTANCE Ira Ashman, Eliza Alexander, Ashley Anderson, kalola Andrews, kelley Bryan-McNeal, krystal Hamlet, jackie Harris, jeffry Leitch, Stephanie Suit, Michael Porter P 212 IDENTIFICATION OF NON-TuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA SPECIES IN ROuTINE CLINICAL PRACTICE uSING MALDI-TOF MASS SPECTROMETRY Eva Sodja, Nada Šorli Peranović, Helena Ribič, Manca Žolnir-Dovč P 213 DRuG SuSCEPTIBILITY PROFILE AND MOLECuLAR TYPING OF PREDOMINANT SINGLE NuCLEOTIDE POLYMORPhISM (SNP) CLuSTER GROuPS IN DELhI Mandira varma-Basil, kushal Garima, Anshika Narang, Soumitesh Chakravorty, Naresh kumar, Shraddha Podwal, Astha Giri, thierry zozio, David Couvin, Stefan Niemann, Nalin Rastogi, David Alland, Mridula Bose P 219 STuDYING ThE METABOLIC ACTIVITY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS ThROuGh A NEW RESAZuRIN REDuCTION BASED ASSAY Carla Silva, Joao Perdigao, Luísa jordão, Isabel Portugal P 220 IDENTIFICATION OF ThE BEST MIRu-VNTR SET TEChNIquE FOR MDR-TB AND xDR-TB SuRVEILLANCE IN LISBON, PORTuGAL Carla Silva, Joao Perdigao, Luisa jordao, Isabel Portugal P 221 DRuG RESISTANCE AND GENETIC DIVERSITY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS IN LuANDA, ANGOLA: A MOLECuLAR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Joao Perdigao, Sofia Clemente, jorge Ramos, Pedro Masakidi, Diana Machado, Carla Silva, Isabel Couto, Miguel viveiros, Nuno taveira, Isabel Portugal 26 27 ABSTRACTS OF LECTuRES (L) L1 NExT GENERATION SEquENCING - DATA COMPLExITY AND STANDARDIZATION Stefan Niemann Molecular Mycobacteriology, research center borstel, borstel, Germany Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) allows for rapid analysis of nearly complete genomes of clinical Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtBC) isolates. NGS based whole genome sequencing (WGS) analysis goes far beyond conventional molecular tests e.g. for drug susceptibility testing by detection of variants in virtually all target genes involved in resistance development (resistome analysis). Simultaneously, it allows for high-resolution strain comparison e.g. for outbreak analysis or even longitudinal genome based molecular epidemiological studies. The application of WGS for diagnostics and strains comparison has become realistic due to the development on so-called bench top NGS systems that can be integrated into a normal laboratory workflow, and allow for WGS of clinical isolates few days and at low costs. However, the widespread use of NGS in the mycobacterial laboratory is hampered by several challenges. The enormous amount of data generated requires new approaches for data analysis, data interpretation, and standardisation of analysis workflows. one major obstacle is the phenotypic interpretation of the genetic data: the genotype phenotype challenge. Although some databasing tools are already available such as tBDReaMDB, more comprehensive and well-curated databases are needed in order to better and more quantitatively correlate genetic data with drug susceptibility phenotypes. Furthermore, the datasets generated (mainly SNP lists) are difficult to standardize and, therefore, not yet employed for inter-laboratory prospective surveillance. Recently, we have developed a fully automated web based NGS interpretation pipeline PhyResSE (https:// bioinf.fz-borstel.de/mchips/phyresse/) that allows the delineation of phylogentic lineage and resistance from NGS data for people untrained in bioinformatics. It combines elaborate data processing and quality control as befits human diagnostics with a treasure trove of validated resistance data collected from well-characterized samples in-house and worldwide. Further developments are ongoing e.g. in the global initiative of the ResSeqtB consortium For standardization of NGS data for molecular epidemiological applications, we developed a core genome multi locus sequence typing (cgMLSt) scheme for clinical MtBC isolates using the Ridom SeqSphere+ software that transfers the genome wide 28 • single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) diversity into an allele numbering system that is standardized, portable and not computational intensive. In first evaluations, cgMLSt allows for a meaningful epidemiological interpretation of the WGS genotyping data. It enables standardized WGS genotyping for epidemiological investigations, e.g. on the regional public health office level, and the creation of web accessible databases for global TB surveillance with an integrated early warning system. L2 A GLOBAL INITIATIVE FOR A RESISTANCE SNP ENCYCLOPEDIA Daniela Maria Cirillo and the ReSeqTB Consortium San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy Rapid drug susceptibility tests (RDSts) are required to improve the management of tuberculosis (tB) patients, guide the appropriate use of the new drugs and new therapeutic regimens at the programmatic level, and to prevent a further increase of drugresistant tB. the field has recognized the need for a data-sharing platform that provides a one-stop data source for clinically relevant genotypic and phenotypic information on Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtB). Having large sets of data reviewed, validated and made easily accessible in a user-friendly manner will support the development of new diagnostic tools and rules to interpret the relationship between genetic polymorphisms and drug resistance in order to properly manage TB patients. The Relational Sequencing tB Data Platform, or ReSeqtB, will fulfill this scope serving as a single repository for the compilation, curation, and validation of existing and newly created sequences and metadata on MtB strains. This initiative is led by a global partnership of academic institutions, public health agencies and non-governmental organizations including the Critical Path Institute, FIND, the World Health organization, the New Diagnostics Working Group, the u.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and it is financially supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. the goals of ReSeqtB initiative are to provide: • A one-stop data source for clinically relevant and global genotypic and phenotypic information on MtB polymorphisms associated with drug resistance • An improved research resource to enable development of new diagnostic tests that can rapidly detect drug specific resistance through the detection of MtB genotypic markers A foundation for developing a curated reference resource for clinicians Successful execution of such an extensive database platform will require substantial, worldwide collaboration of scientists investigating the genetic basis for drug resistance and developers with expertise in database design and implementation. L3 WhOLE-GENOME SEquENCE DATA PREDICTS DRuG-SuSCEPTIBILITY AND RESISTANCE – A LARGE SCALE APPROACh Timothy Walker Department of Microbiology and infectious Diseases, John radcliffe Hospital, oxford, uK Diagnosing drug-resistance remains an obstacle to the WHo’s aim of eliminating tuberculosis. Phenotypic drug susceptibility testing (DSt) is expensive and slow, whilst commercial genotypic assays screen only common resistance-determining mutations affecting a sub-set of drugs. As the price of wholegenome sequencing (WGS) technology is reducing and as sequencing platforms are becoming more mobile, we seek to characterise mutations predicting drug-resistance, or consistent with susceptibility, for all first and second-line drugs to contribute towards a knowledgebase for a WGS-based diagnostic test. We sequenced a training-set of 2099 Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomes, characterising each nucleotide-position in relation to the pan-susceptible reference genome as containing either a ‘wild-type’ or mutant base-call. For 23 candidate-genes identified from the drug-resistance literature, mutations were algorithmically characterised as not conferring resistance (‘benign’), ‘resistance-determinants’, or ‘uncharacterised’. We then assessed the capacity of these characterisations to predict phenotypic DST for an independent validation-set of 1552 genomes. Outside of candidate-genes we sought mutations under similar selection pressure to those characterised as resistance-determinants within the candidate genes to explain residual phenotypic resistance. 120 training-set mutations were characterised as resistance-determining, and 772 as ‘benign’. using these mutations, 89·2% of validationset phenotypes could be predicted with a mean 92·3% sensitivity and 98·4% specificity. only 10.8% of validation-set phenotypes could not be predicted because uncharacterised mutations were present. On in silico comparison, characterised resistancedeterminants had a higher sensitivity than the mutations from three line-probe assays (85·1% vs. 81·6%). No additional resistance-determinants were identified among mutations under selection-pressure in non-candidate-genes. A broad catalogue of genetic mutations enable WGS-data to be used clinically to predict drug-resistance, drug-susceptibility, or to identifying drug-phenotypes that cannot yet be genetically predicted. This approach could already be integrated into routine diagnostic workflows, phasingout phenotypic DST whilst reporting drug-resistance earlier. The performance will improve iteratively as more strains are sequenced. L4 ThE FuTuRE OF MycobActeriuM tuberculosis SEquENCING: DIRECT FROM CLINICAL SAMPLES David M. Engelthaler1, Rebecca E. Colman1, jason W. Sahl1, Valeriu Crudu2, Donald Catanzaro3, Antonino Catanzaro4, Paul keim1,5, Ted Cohen6, Timothy C. Rodwell4 1 translational Genomics research institute, usA 2 Phthisiopneumology institute, republic of Moldova 3 university of Arkansas, usA 4 university of california san Diego 5 Northern Arizona university 6 yale university tabletop DNA sequencers now allow for rapid and robust sequencing of pathogen isolates as well as direct analysis of clinical samples. However, applying this technology directly to complex samples, such as sputum, currently has limitations due to the complexity of biological samples. Barriers to progress include, obtaining sufficient target DNA, differentiating host/ pathogen DNA, detecting genomic areas of interest, capturing phylogenetic signal and employing the necessary bioinformatics resources. Our group has developed accesible tools and methodologies for direct sequencing of clinical sputum samples which enable us to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), produce a rapid drug susceptibility profiles, detect heteroresistance and conduct molecular epidemiology analyses. Methods described here will include: A) Next Gen rapid drug suitability testing (RDSt), an amplicon sequencing method for generating a rapid and inexpensive DSt profile straight from AFB positive sputum samples; B) Single Molecule overlapping Read (SMoR) analysis – an advanced amplicon sequencing approach for detecting and measuring heteroresistance to 0.1% minor resistance component; and C) Whole Genome Focused Array SNP typing (WG-FASt), which can place whole sample (metagenome) sequencing data on a well-characterized phylogenetic tree. This last approach provides a rapid method for strain typing, and possibly contact tracing direct from a sputum sample. We have employed these techniques on DNA extracted >150 remnant clinical sputum samples from Moldova. using rapid DNA sequencing with tabletop instruments and automated analysis directly on clinical samples, allows for this technology to move closer to the point of care in clinics around the world. 29 ABSTRACTS OF GuEST LECTuRES (GL) GL1 NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN DIAGNOSTICS Catharina Boehme GL2 GENExPERT ROLL-OuT IN SOuTh AFRICA: ExPERIENCE AND IMPACT Wendy Stevens GL3 uNDERSTANDING MDR-TB IN EASTERN EuROPE: WhOLE GENOME EVOLuTION OF CLINICAL M. tuberculosis ISOLATES Matthias Merker, Silke Feuerriegel, helen Cox, Sonia Borrell, Sebastien Gagneux, Sabine Rüsch-Gerdes, Thomas A. kohl, ulrich Nübel, Philipp Supply, Thierry Wirth, Stefan Niemann research center borstel, borstel, Germany transmission of multidrug resistant (MDR, resistance to isoniazid and rifampicin) Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtBC) strains constitutes a major threat for global tuberculosis (tB) infection control. overall high rates of MDR-tB among new cases in Eastern European countries and in the Russian Federation already point towards an ongoing transmission of drug resistant strains. In that regard, it is unclear if we have to cope with local MDR-tB outbreaks caused by different, individual strain types or if we have to deal with highly successful and widespread clones that may have specifically adapted to MDR-tB treatment regimens. Beside social and economical factors the MtBC Beijing lineage and its specific genetic background is still under debate to contribute to an enhanced transmissibility, high rates of drug resistances and/ or increased virulence. However, without a detailed classification of worldwide circulating Beijing strains clear associations between genetic variants and pathobiological parameters is complex. to address this questions we utilized a comprehensive dataset of 4,987 clinical Beijing isolates originated from 99 countries worldwide and 24-loci mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit – variable number tandem repeat (MIRu-vNtR) typing. We could differentiate seven clonal complexes, whereas only two complexes are dominating in regions with the highest MDR-tB incidence rates. the high clonality, i.e. extremely low genetic diversity, was confirmed by whole genome 30 sequencing (WGS) of 110 representative isolates and additionally pointed out new potential drug resistance variants and possible virulence mechanisms in both outbreak clones. An extended WGS analysis of over 1,000 Beijing outbreak strains further revealed an ongoing transmission since at least 1995 beyond national boarders towards the European region with increasing rates of second-line drug resistance and compensatory mutations. the long-term selection of beneficial gene variants in prominent MtBC outbreak strains needs to be considered for future TB control programs and may jeopardize existing treatment regimens and resistance diagnostics due to the abundance and high diversity of resistance and bacterial fitness determinants. GL4 OPTIMIZING TB DRuG TRIALS Michael hölscher Department for infectious Diseases & tropical Medicine, university of Munich, lMu, Munich, Germany This is an exciting time for tuberculosis drug development with a number of clinical trials reporting (REFAquIN, oFLotuB, REMoxtB). the challenge facing drug development is illustrated by the flouroquinolones trials to prove the promising results in Phase 2 regimens. It is time that we review drug development methodologies critically. The dizzying number of potential dosages and combinations of novel, established and repurposed agents requires rapid pre-selection of the most promising regimens from pre-clinical and early phase clinical trials. These regimens must be optimized at low cost to select the right regimen for a pivotal registration trial. A combination of innovative animal models, early clinical trial designs that gathers safety and DDI data as early as possible and efficacy outcome measurements in phase II studies that do not only look for bacillary clearance from sputum but also for relapse is needed. This presentation will review the different approaches that are currently under consideration. GL5 TB IN ChILDREN Marc Nicol GL6 TB TRANSMISSION IN WESTERN EuROPEAN SETTINGS Timothy Walker Department of Microbiology and infectious Diseases, John radcliffe Hospital, oxford, uK Control of tuberculosis depends on the timely identification and treatment of cases and the identification of contacts. Many Western European countries have programmes to systematically genotype M. tuberculosis cultures, using 24-locus MIRu-vNtR to help identify outbreaks. over the past 4 years there have been a number of different studies demonstrating the increased resolution of wholegenome sequencing (WGS). the technology is being piloted in England this year with a view to adoption in 2016. the principle advantage of WGS over MIRu-vNtR is increased resolution for delineating the margins of outbreaks. Additional advantages include more detailed insights into outbreak structure with the possibility of even illuminating the direction of transmission, and that the same data lends itself to the identification of species and drug susceptibility at no extra cost. The challenges include data storage and searching. I will discuss the impact of WGS on our understanding of transmission in Western Europe, using oxfordshire and Birmingham as case studies, and will also explore our ability to make inferences about the direction of transmission from genetic data alone. I will also discuss our experiences of using WGS as a diagnostic tool in real time and show how we can efficiently interrogate a large back-catalogue of strains with each new sequence as it becomes available. GL7 CAN ThE POST-2015 WhO END TB TARGETS BE REAChED? A MuLTI-MODEL ExERCISE FOR ChINA, INDIA AND SOuTh AFRICA Richard White1, houben RMGj 1, Gomez G 2, Vassall A 1, Pillay Y 3, Wang L 4, Rade k 5, PhiriNkhoma T 6, kimerling M 7 1 london school of Hygiene and tropical Medicine, london, uK 2 AiGHD, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 3 NDoH, Pretoria, south Africa 4 NtP, beijing, china 5 rNtcP, india 6 Action, lilongwe, Malawi 7 bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, seattle, usA Background the new post-2015 global tB targets require a 50% and 75% reduction in incidence and mortality respectively by 2025, but it is unclear how feasible these Targets are for high-burden countries. Methods Eleven independently-developed dynamic transmission models of tB projected the epidemiological impact of intervention scenarios employing existing tB prevention and patient care tools in China, India and South Africa. Representatives from National tuberculosis Programmes (NtP) and the Advocacy community provided country-specific intervention scenarios, which included symptom screening, active case finding and preventive therapy, enabled by anticipated investments in health system and social protection schemes. A combination scenario considered the potential impact of scaling-up all interventions simultaneously. Findings No single intervention scenario was sufficient to reach WHO 2025 milestones in any country. However, models projected that in the South Africa NTP scenario a combination of continuous IPT for those on ARt, increased screening for tB symptoms at health centres and improvements in TB care could achieve a median of 52% (range=48-60%) and 74% (range=70-85%) reduction in incidence and mortality, respectively. For India and China a cumulative 1.1mln deaths and 3.2mln cases might be prevented by 2025, though the reductions from this intervention set still fell short of the 2025 Targets in both countries. The Advocacy scenarios illustrated the high impact of dramatic reductions of the latent TB reservoir. Interpretation While major reductions in tB burden appear possible with current tools, additional interventions, focusing on country-specific drivers of the tB epidemic will be needed to reach the post-2015 Global TB targets. GL8 LINkING M. TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx POPuLATION STRuCTuRE WITh PAThOBIOLOGY Sebastien Gagneux Head tuberculosis research unit, Deputy Head Dep. of Med. Parasitology & infection biol. swiss tropical & Public Health institute, basel, switzerland Mycobacterium tuberculosis Lineage 4 is globally the most important cause of human tuberculosis. However, the factors underlying the success of this lineage are unknown. Here we analyzed 3,366 clinical isolates from 100 countries by combining high-throughput genotyping with whole genome sequencing. We show that Lineage 4 comprises four sublineages that are geographically restricted, consistent with a specialist phenotype, and three sublineages that occur globally, supporting a generalist phenotype. our data further demonstrate that European colonization 31 and migration contributed to the global spread of the most frequent generalist sublineage of Lineage 4. taken together, our findings indicate that the overall success of Lineage 4 is a consequence of both the various evolutionary strategies adopted by different sublineages and variation in human migrations across the continents. GL9 NTM - uPDATE 2015 Enrico Tortoli emerging bacterial Pathogens unit, san raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy Bacterial phylogeny can be reconstructed on the basis on comparative analysis of the genetic sequences of the single species. The 16S rRNA has been for many years the only target of such analyses but in the last decade other housekeeping genes have been investigated and the phylogeny based on their concatenated sequences has become a standard. It is now clear that whole genomes can provide more comprehensive data for the differentiation of species and subspecies. Novel criteria, among which the average nucleotide identity which relies on whole genome sequence comparison of all conserved genes, have been proposed, as alternative to the poorly repeatable DNA-DNA hybridization, for the phylogenetic definition of species. to better understand the phylogenetic relationship between the species of the genus Mycobacterium more than 50 type strains were de novo sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq platform. Following assembling and annotation with proper software the phylogenetic analysis was conducted with PhyloPhlAn and the pan-genome analysis pipeline. the emerging phylogenetic three, including also the genomes available in GenBank, was characterized by the clear-cut distinction of slowly and rapidly growing species with the latter being more ancestral. The species of the Mycobacterium terrae complex occupied an intermediate position between rapid and slow growers. Both species located in isolated branches and in clusters were present; among the latter, stand the groups, or complexes, having, as more representative species M. avium, M. simiae, M. scrofulaceum, M. celatum, M. fortuitum, M. chelonae, and M. smegmatis. Similarities and differences with previous phylogenetic theories will be object of discussion. 32 ABSTRACT OF GERTRuD MEISSNER AWARD hOW CAN DIAGNOSTIC WhOLE-GENOME SEquENCING FOR TB BECOME SuSTAINABLE? Claudio köser Department of Medicine, university of cambridge, cambridge, uK In light of recent proof of concept studies, it is beyond a doubt that whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of every single new culture-positive TB case will become the standard of care in well-resourced countries. This transition will primarily be driven by the desire to replace traditional typing techniques, such as MIRuvNtR, rather than to identify resistant strains, as resistance is relatively rare in these settings. unlike MIRu-vNtR, however, it is not sufficient to invest a set amount of money upfront to translate WGS. Instead, continuous public investment is required given that WGS analysis infrastructure has to be constantly refined. As a result, the paradigm used to develop MIRuvNtR is not appropriate for WGS, which, I will argue, calls for a fundamental change in which translational research is currently undertaken. 33 ABSTRACTS OF ORAL PRESENTATIONS (OP) GLOBAL PROSPECTIVE OF TB DIAGNOSTICS OP1 DNA AMPLIFICATION-BASED ASSAYS FOR RAPID DIAGNOSIS OF TuBERCuLOSIS IN MOROCCO AND DETECTION OF MuTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITh RIFAMPICIN RESISTANCE IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS El Mehdi Bentaleb1, Mohammed Abid2, Saaïd Amzazi3, hassan Ait Benhassou4, hassan Sefrioui4 1 Medical biotechnology center, Moroccan Foundation for Advanced science, innovation and research, rabat; laboratory of biochemistry & immunology, Faculty of science, Mohammed V university, rabat, Morocco 2 laboratoire de Génétique Mycobactérienne, institut Pasteur, tangier, Morocco 3 laboratory of biochemistry & immunology, Faculty of science, Mohammed V university, rabat, Morocco 4 Medical biotechnology center, Moroccan Foundation for Advanced science, innovation and research, rabat, Morocco tuberculosis (tB) is one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide. It is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that infects a new person every second in the world. Each year, about 1% of the world population is newly infected and about 9 million people develop the disease and approximately 2 million of them die. In Morocco as in most developing countries where the timely and accurate diagnosis of TB remains a great challenge, tB constitutes a major public health threat with 30,000 new cases each year. Furthermore, control of TB has been complicated by the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) M. tuberculosis strains. Currently, the conventional methods such as light microscopy and classic culture used to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Moroccan patients, especially in less equipped regions are complex, unreliable, labor-intensive, technically challenging and time-consuming. In that context, we are actually developing at MAScIR (Moroccan foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation and Research) and for the first time in Morocco a new tB detection test based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification technology (LAMP). tB-LAMP assay has several advantages that make it relevant and attractive as a diagnostic platform for resource-poor settings: it is specific, sensitive, highly specific, fast, and it generates a result that can be detected directly bythe naked eye. therefore, due to its easy operation 34 without sophisticated equipment, tB-LAMP assay is so simple to use in small-scale hospitals, primary care facilities, and clinical laboratories in Morocco as a point-of-care TB diagnosis test. Our test based on the amplification of IS6110 insertion sequence, specific to Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtBC), has been successfully tested on DNA extracted from culture and also directly from decontaminated sputum. on the other hand, to counter the alarming increase in the global incidence of MDR-tB infection, a need for methods that can rapidly and effectively identify drug-resistant cases becomes an emergency. thus, we are currently developing a highly sensitive, accurate, and rapid and an affordable assay, based on qPCR-HRM technology, able to detect mutations in rpob gene responsible of rifampicin resistance to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. OP2 EVALuATION OF FLuOROTYPE MTB FOR ThE DETECTION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx DNA IN PARAFFINEMBEDDED BIOPSIES Zaira Moure1, josep Castellvi2, Adrian Sánchez3, Maria Concepción Marina1, Maria Teresa Tortola Fernandez1 1 Department of Microbiology 2 Department of Pathology 3 Department of infectious Diseases Introduction and Objective: Sometimes, tuberculosis disease is not suspected and clinical samples are not collected for culture, in these cases the only available material is paraffin-embedded biopsies (PEB). Recently, the Fluorotype MtB (FtMtB) (Hain Lifescience) a real-time PCR has been introduced for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) from respiratory and non-respiratory clinical samples. Our objective is to evaluate FTMB in PEB. Material and methods: A retrospective study was performed at the vall d’Hebron university Hospital (HuvH) from August 2012 to February 2015. Specimens were collected from patients with histopathological results compatible with mycobacterial infection. Mycobacterial culture was not requested in any sample. Clinical specimens. We studied 17 PEB from joint (1), brain (1), endometrium (1), liver (1) bone (1), synovium (1), pleura (1), larynx (1), intestine (2), lung (2), and lymph node (6). DNa extraction. The PEB were deparaffinized and DNA extraction was done by the qIAamp DNA FFPE tissue kit ® (qIAGEN, Hilden, Germany). PCR amplification. The DNA obtained was amplified by the following amplification methods: FtMtB and nested-PCR and sequencing of the hsp65 gene (Nested-PCR). All FtMtB positive samples were analyzed by Genotype MtBDRplus (Hain Lifescience GmbH) and Genexpert MtB/ RIF (Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA). the commercial methods were performed following manufacturer’s instructions. Results: We studied 17 PEB from 17 patients, 14 (82%) were Spanish citizens and 3 (18%) were immigrants. Clinical and treatment were used as gold standard. of the 17 patients, 9 had compatible symptoms with tuberculous disease and received treatment, 5 (55,5%) of them had FtMtB positive. Eight patients had no clinical and treatment, and FtMtB was negative in 5 (62,5%). We had 7 discrepant results, 3 false positives and 4 false negatives. the 87.5% (7/8) of the FtMtB positive samples were also positive by Genotype MtBDRplus. All samples (8) FtMtB positive were Genexpert negative. Nested-PCR only detected 3 non-tuberculous mycobacteria. Conclusions: 1/ For a routine mycobacteriology laboratory the Fluorotype MtB has shown to be far superior to other techniques for the detection of M.tuberculosis complex. 2/ Genotype MtBDRplus is useful as a genotypic susceptibility test for PEB. 3/ We highly recommend performing mycobacteria culture not only to confirm the viability of the microorganisms but also to perform drug susceptibility testing. OP3 A MuLTICENTER STuDY ON ThE NEW VERSION OF ThE GENOTYPE MTBDRsl ASSAY FOR ThE DETECTION OF RESISTANCE TO FLuOROquINOLONES AND SECOND LINE INjECTABLE DRuGS Elisa Tagliani1, Paolo Miotto1, Andrea Maurizio Cabibbe1, Emanuele Borroni1, juan Carlos Toro2, Mikael Mansjö2, Sven hoffner2, Doris hillemann3, Aksana Zalutskaya4, Alena M. Skrahina4, Daniela Maria Cirillo1 1 emerging bacterial Pathogens unit, Division of immunology, transplantation and infectious Diseases, San Raffaele Scientific Institute 2 Dept of Microbiology, Public Health Agency of sweden 3 Diagnostic Mycobacteriology, research center borstel 4 republican research and Practical centre for Pulmonology and tb the limited drug susceptibility test (DSt) capacity especially in areas with high rates of resistant forms. We conducted a multicenter study to evaluate the performance of the new Genotype MtBDRsl v2.0 (Hain Lifescience) assay for detection of mutations leading to fluoroquinolones (Fqs) and second-line injectable drugs (SLIDs) resistances. The assay targets mutations in gyra, gyrb genes for Fq-R, and rrs and the promoter of eis genes for SLID-R. We evaluated the performances on 228 M. tuberculosis complex isolates (73 Fq-R, 147 SLID-R) and 231 smear positive specimens (57 Fq-R, 63 SLID-R) comparing results to phenotypic DSt and sequencing. the v2.0 assay correctly identified 83.6% of Fq-R isolates with mutations in gyrb identified in one strain only. overall the concordance of MtBDRsl v2.0 with phenotypic DST and gyra qRDR sequencing was 94.7% (95% CI 91.0-97.0%) and 97.4% (95% CI 94.4-98.8%), respectively. the test correctly identified 86.4% of SLID-R isolates, including 27/127 (21.3%) strains carrying mutations in eis promoter only. overall, the concordance between MtBDRsl v2.0 and phenotypic DSt for SLID-R was 87.7% (200/228) (95% CI 79.9-91.0%), whereas the sensitivity and specificity were 86.4% (95% CI 79.9-91.0%) and 90.1% (95% CI 81.794.9%) respectively. In comparison with rrs and eis sequencing concordance was 97.8% and 98.1%, respectively. Among the 232 respiratory specimens tested, MtBDRsl v2.0, showed 231 valid results. the test correctly identified 53 (92.9%) Fq-R specimens. overall the diagnostic accuracy for Fq-R detection was 97.0% (95% CI 93.9-98.5%), with sensitivity and specificity of 93.0% (95% CI 83.3-97.2%) and 98.3% (95% CI 95.1-99.4%) respectively. the test correctly identified 56 (88.9%) SLID-R cases. the diagnostic accuracy for SLID-R detection in specimens was 90.9% (95% CI 86.5-94.0%), with sensitivity and specificity of 88.9% (95% CI 78.8-94.5%) and 91.7% (95% CI 86.5-95.0%) respectively. Compared to v1.0, the sensitivity for Fq-R remained unvaried, whereas MtBDRsl v2.0 showed an improvement for the detection of xDR-tB with specificity and sensitivity of 81.8% and 80.4% for direct and indirect testing respectively. The new probes included in v2.0 for detecting mutations in eis lead to higher sensitivity for detection of KAN-R for both direct and indirect testing (96% and 95.4% respectively) as compared to v1.0 (66.9%). MtBDRsl v2.0 represents an useful screening tool for rapid detection of resistance to second-line drugs and to guide an appropriate MDR-tB treatment. Management of multi and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR/xDR-tB) requires accurate analysis of molecular DR determinants to overcome 35 OP4 TAILORED GENOTYPING TOOLS BASED ON ALLELE-SPECIFIC PCRs TARGETING MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS STRAINSPECIFIC SNPs OBTAINED FROM WhOLE GENOME SEquENCING DATA Laura Pérez-Lago1, Miguel Martínez Lirola2, Iñaki Comas3, Marta herranz1, Santiago Izco1, María jesús Ruiz Serrano1, Paula López Roa4, juan Carlos Momo5, Lucía Biyé Ondó5, juan Eyene5, Emilio Bouza1, Darío García de Viedma6 1 Hospital General universitario Gregorio Marañón 2 complejo Hospitalario torrecárdenas 3 Genomics and Health unit, Fisabio Public Health 4 Hospital Doce de octubre 5 Plan Nacional de control de la tuberculosis y la lepra de Guinea ecuatorial 6 servicio de Microbiología clínica y enfermedades infecciosas, Hospital General universitario Gregorio Marañón; inst. investigación sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, cei campus Moncloa, Madrid, spain Molecular epidemiology studies in tB are generally based on the application of the same fingerprinting tool to all the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtB) isolates in a population. In some cases, specific PCRs have been developed to track selected strains, but this was only possible when a specific genetic feature made it possible to target them. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) enables us to identify singular features (strainspecific SNPs) for any MtB strain of interest and to develop allele-specific-oligonucleotide (ASo)-PCRs tailored to detect relevant strains. We evaluated the efficiency and flexibility of this new strategy in 3 different scenarios. First, we developed a multiplex ASO-PCR to track the most actively transmitted strains in a population directly from respiratory specimens. The test was robust enough to be transferred to the local laboratory addressing that transmission problem to accelerate the availability of results. It prospectively identified new cases infected by these strains and retrospectively detected previously unidentified cases. Second, we optimized a multiplex ASo-PCR targeting 4 strain-specific SNPs to quickly track in Madrid the presence of the high-risk Beijing strain responsible for a severe outbreak in Gran Canaria (GC). An alert was activated after diagnosis of a tB case in Madrid with an active infection by the GC strain resulting from nonadherence to therapy during the previous 8 years. our test quickly tracked the GC strain, thus enabling us to analyze, within 1 week, 868 stored isolates from the last 6 years directly from a boiled crude extract. Only 2 recently diagnosed cases were infected by the strain and not related to our case, thus challenging our assumption that the Beijing strain from the GC outbreak was highly transmissible. Finally, another ASo-PCR was designed to specifically 36 track a prevalent MDR strain in Equatorial Guinea by targeting 4 strain-specific SNPs. A preliminary study identified 2 cases infected with that MDR strain from 26 prospective cases in which we had the remaining Genxpert mixtures used in a pilot study. PCRs targeting SNPs from relevant strains is a novel strategy for monitoring of TB transmission. It is based on low-cost, rapid, and transferable tests tailored to the challenges of different populations. Funding: Plan Estatal I+D+I 2013-2016, ISCIII (12/02080,13/01207) and FEDER, IiSGM II-CooPINt-2015, Ramón y Cajal and MINECo research grants (RyC-2012-10627, SAF2013-43521-R) (to I.C.). OP5 PhyResSE: WEB -TOOL FOR ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE AND LINEAGE DISCRIMINATION BASED ON WhOLE GENOME SEquENCING DATA OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx STRAINS Viola Schleusener1, Silke Feuerriegel2, Patrick Beckert2, Thomas kohl2, Paolo Miotto3, Andrea M. Cabibbe3, Daniela Maria Cirillo3, Stefan Niemann2, kurt Fellenberg1 1 bioinformatics, research center borstel, borstel, Germany 2 Molecular Mycobacteriology, research center borstel, German center for infection research, borstel, Germany 3 emerging bacterial Pathogens unit, Division of immunology, transplantation and infectious Diseases, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, italy Whole genome sequencing of clinical Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtBC) strains represents the ultimate approach for prediction of drug resistant tuberculosis (tB), which poses a global health threat. WGS allows for analysis of virtually all resistance targets and simultaneously facilitates interrogation of further targets, such asfor phylogenetic lineage classification. However, its general use is restrained by the challenging data analysis and interpretation. to overcome this data to knowledge bottleneck, we developed the web-based “PhyResSE” tool that enables the automated interpretation of MtBC NGS data for determination of resistance and phylogenetic lineage classification. In a standardized, easy-to-perform workflow combining tools from BWA, SAMtools and GAtk, PhyResSE processes Fastq-files to detect genetic variants, which are known to be involved in drug resistance development or are specific to a particular phylogenetic lineage. Results are based on a validated variant list and are presented in a plain language report. the evaluation of the pipeline, based on a collection of 92 well-characterized MtBC strains, confirmed excellent performance of PhyResSE. Indeed, NGS results obtained were superior to both classical Sanger sequencing and classical typing methods, e.g. by detection of heterogeneous SNP calls and improved definite phylogenetic lineage classification. In conclusion, PhyResSE represents the first web tool allowing the automated knowledge-based interpretation of MtBC WGS data for determination of resistance and phylogenetic lineage classification. It bridges the gap between NGS data and knowledge, thus opening the way for a wider application of WGS in the mycobacteriological laboratory for day-to-day use. rifampicin resistance and can be applied routinely particularly in resource limited settings. OP6 ThE VALuE OF MICROSCOPIC-OBSERVATION DRuG SuSCEPTIBILITY (MODS) ASSAY IN ThE DIAGNOSIS OF TuBERCuLOSIS AND DETECTION OF MuLTIDRuG RESISTANCE Deniz Sertel Şelale1, Meltem uzun1 1 Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Microbiology, istanbul university In control of tuberculosis, inexpensive, rapid, and reliable methods of detecting infection by and drug susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtBC) are crucial. the MoDS method has a high sensitivity for tB and multidrug resistant-tB (MDRtB), is an inexpensive and rapid culture method, provides simultaneous drug susceptibility testing for MDRtB. In this study the performance of the MoDS assay in direct detection of MtBC and its susceptibility to drugs was compared with conventional culture methods (Löwenstein-jensen [Lj] culture, Mycobacterial Growth Indicator tube 960 [MGIt] system) and standart drug susceptibility testing (MGIt system). of the 331 sputum samples 71 (%21.45) yielded culture positive for MtBC by MoDS assay. Sensitivity and specificity (% 95 confidence interval) of MoDS assay for detection of MtBC strains were %95.95 (%91.45100.44) and 98.83 (%97.52-100.15) respectively; the sensitivity of the assay was higher (%98.55 [%95.73101.37]) in smear positive specimens. MoDS assay detected isoniazid, rifampicin and multi-drug resistant isolates with %87.10 (%75.30-98.90), %85.71 (%67.98-104.04) and %92.31 (%77.82-106.79) sensitivity and %100 (%100-100), %96.49 (%91.71101.27) and %96.55 (%91.86-101.25) specifity, respectively. Median time for culture positivity was similar for MGIt system (8 days) and MoDS assay (8 days) but was significantly longer with Lj culture (20 days) (p=0.000 for both comparisons). Median time to the availability of the susceptibility results was significantly shorter with MoDS assay (8 days) compared to MGIt system (20 days) (p=0.000). Conclusion: the findings of this study indicates that MoDS assay is an inexpensive and rapid test with good performance characteristics for direct diagnosis of tuberculosis and detection of isoniazid and 37 DRuG RESISTANCE OF M.tuberculosis OP7 MOLECuLAR ChARACTERISTICS OF PZA RESISTANT STRAINS FROM TBILISI, REPuBLIC OF GEORGIA, A hIGh BuRDEN MDR-TB SETTING Sarah Sengstake1, Indra Bergval1, Nino Bablishvili2, Nestani Tukvadze2, jessica De Beer3, Rusudan Aspindzelashvili2, Dick van Soolingen4, Richard Anthony1 1 Kit biomedical research, royal tropical institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2 National tb reference laboratory, National center for tb and lung Diseases, tbilisi, Georgia 3 National tuberculosis reference laboratory, National institute for Public Health and the environment (rivm), bilthoven, the Netherlands 4 National institute for Public Health and the environment, bilthoven; Department of Medical Microbiology, radboud university Nijmegen Medical centre, the Netherlands Large numbers of patients infected with a multidrug or extensively-resistant M(x)DR-tB strain require new treatment regimens. Almost all current first line tB regimens including those currently being evaluated in clinical trials include pyrazinamide (PzA). the activity against non-replicating bacteria of PzA makes it a valuable drug for current and future drug regimens. However, recent studies reveal high numbers of PzA resistant strains in MDR-tB patients. this could compromise the effectiveness of currently developed and tested new drug regimens that include PzA. We have assessed PzA resistance in samples collected at the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory in tbilisi, Republic of Georgia from patients diagnosed with pulmonary tB. the high burden of MDRTB prioritises this setting for clinical trials and/or administration of new tB treatment regimens, but data on PzA resistance is lacking. We analysed 47 MDR-tB isolates for phenotypic susceptibility to PzA and, when strains were resistant, the pncA gene was sequenced. thirty-three (33/47, 70.2%) MDR-tB isolates were phenotypically resistant to PzA and all carried a mutation in pncA. In total 17 pncA polymorphisms were identified in these isolates of which 14 (14/17, 82.3%) were unique. the remaining three mutations were clustered among 19 isolates of which 15 formed two MIRu-vNtR clusters. The high heterogeneity of pncA mutations suggests dissemination after acquisition of PzA resistance. Deep sequencing data reveals that in the majority of these strains the mutations in pncA were fixed making it less likely that these mutations 38 were recently acquired in the patient. the pncA gene of three strains showed traces of multiple genotypes (wildtype and/or additional resistance mutations), which could indicate de novo mutations in pncA, acquired within the patient after initial infection with a PzA resistant strain. our findings support indications for both scenarios: transmission as well as acquisition of PzA resistance. Analysis of larger strain collections will provide insights about the origin of PzA resistance in clinical isolates. A better understanding of the dynamics of PzA resistance in clinical settings may impact on patient management and treatment policies and may guide the administration of new drugs. OP8 ThE ROLE OF MDR TB IN EMERGENCE OF RETREATMENT TuBERCuLOSIS CASES Anda Nodieva1, Inta jansone2, Ilva Pole3, Girts Skenders3, Matiss Bauskenieks2, Ilze Morozova3, Iveta Ozere4, Vaira Leimane3, Viesturs Baumanis2, Renate Ranka2 1 Department of infectology and Dermatology, Riga Stradiņš University; Bauska Hospital 2 latvian biomedical research and study centre, university of latvia, riga, latvia 3 clinic of tuberculosis and lung Diseases, riga east university Hospital, latvia 4 Department of infectology and Dermatology, Riga Stradiņš University; Centre of Tuberculosis and lung Diseases, riga east university Hospital Introduction: Multi-drug resistance (MDR) is much higher among retreatment tuberculosis (tB) cases than among new cases in Latvia and globally. Aim: to find out the pathogenesis and risk factors for recurrent TB cases. Design and methods: Retrospective case control study. Non-probability convenience sampling of retreatment cases (RC) relapses, retreatments after failure and default for cases with available M.tuberculosis (MT) cultures for current and previous TB episodes during 1999-2008. Drug resistance (DR) was determined by the absolute concentration method on Lowenstein-Jensen medium and/or BACTEC culture. The H37Rv strain was used as a “gold standard” for susceptible strains. Molecular typing of Mt isolates was performed by analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and spoligotyping, compared in program BIoNuMERIC. As were defined Cases (RI) - tB RC with genotipically different Mt in both episodes, suggesting reinfection with different strain. Controls (RA) tB RC with genotipically identical Mt in both episodes, suggesting reactivation. Results: From 82 RC analyzed in 78% Mt strains of recurrence episodes are different from initial episodes, suggesting exogenous reinfection. Previous episode of RI cases: drug-susceptible (DS) 72%, DR non-MDR 16%, MDR 12%, including xDR 3 cases (8% from MDR), hospitalization 223 days in average during 1999-2002. these cases in 77% become reinfected with MDR Mt strains, predominantly Beijing and LAM9 genotype. Previous episode of RA controls: DS 41%, DR non-MDR 24%, MDR 35%. Current episode of RA controls: DS 29%, DR non-MDR 24%, MDR 47%, including xDR 3 cases (38% from MDR), prevalence of Beijing and LAM9 genotype. Average hospital stays 189 days, mostly during 2003-2007. Conclusion: 1. Most part of tB recurrences was due to the exogenous reinfection. 2. tB patients, especially non-MDR were at risk for recurrence due to the reinfection with MDR Mt strains during prolonged hospitalization. 3. As a risk factor for “true” TB relapse drug resistant Mt in the previous episode is suspected. 4. To decrease risk of TB transmission in hospitals rapid molecular methods to detect Rifampicin resistance, strong infection control measures and ambulatory treatment should be enforced. 5. Mt genotyping is essential tool for molecular epidemiology. OP9 PYRAZINAMIDE RESISTANCE IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS FAILS TO BITE? Richard Anthony1, Alice den hertog1, Sarah Sengstake1 1 Kit biomedical research, royal tropical institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands For most widely used anti-mycobacterial drugs, a limited number of mutations have emerged that are responsible for the vast majority of transmitted drug resistance in M. tuberculosis (MtB). there is one notable exception: pyrazinamide (PzA). the list of mutations known to confer PzA resistance in clinical strains is long and growing, and despite the fact that rates of 50% PzA resistance in MDR are frequently reported, there is very little clustering of mutations. Whereas this has received a lot of attention with respect to the difficulty of developing practical PzA resistance assays, the reasons behind this lack of clustering itself has been relatively overlooked. Despite the frequent acquisition of PzA resistance, the responsible mutations have apparently for decades remained incompatible with epidemic spread, and thus appear to have a fitness cost in vivo. This curious and poorly explained lack of clustering and evolutionary selection of successful PzA resistance mechanisms deserves attention. We will present the available evidence supporting our hypothesis that PzA resistant strains have a reduced ability to spread and are often dead end mutations, and present a number of testable predictions based on this hypothesis. OP10 ThE ROLE OF ThE BEIjING AND h4/uRAL GENOTYPES IN ThE EPIDEMIOLOGY AND TREATMENT OuTCOMES OF MuLTIDRuGRESISTANT TuBERCuLOSIS Valeriu Crudu1, Elena Romancenco2, Ecaterina Noroc3, Liliana Domente1, Sofia Alexandru1, Dumitru Chesov1, Viorel Soltan4, Stefan Niemann5, Christoph Lange5, M. Merker5, Richard Garfein6, Timothy Rodwell6, Antonino Catanzaro6, Constantin Rimis1 1 Phthisiopneumology institute 2 Phthisiopneumology institute, chisinau, Moldova 3 Phthisiopneumology institute “chiril Draganiuc” 4 center for Health Policies and studies, state Medical and Pharmaceutical university “N.testemitanu” 5 Molecular Mycobacteriology, research center borstel, German center for infection research, borstel, Germany 6 university of california, san Diego Background: The prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRtB) is a serious problem, having major public health and economic consequences in the R.Moldova. Beijing genotype strains of M.tuberculosis (Mtb) are associated with drug resistance, particularly MDRtB and their prevalence is increasing worldwide. The aim: to provide information about the genetic diversity and prevalent genotypes of Mtb in a high MDRtB burden country. this study has used a combination of information: genotyping of Mtb strains, drug resistance surveillance data and treatment outcomes correlated with genotype and drug resistance pattern. Methods: 13278 M.tuberculosis strains were isolated from tB patients in Moldova from 2008 to 2012. Drug susceptibility assays were performed for 90,7% (n=12038) of strains. A total of 222 Mtb strains isolated during this period were genotyped, using IS6110-RFLP, spoligotyping and MIRu-vNtRs. 74 of isolated were sensitive to first line drugs and 148 samples were resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampin. Results: Prevalence of MDRtB between New and Re-treatment TB Cases during the period study was on very high level: 2008-23.8% (n=266) and 59.0%(n=629), 2009 - 22,6% (n=291) and 69.9%(n=825), 2010-23.7%(n=349) and 65.2%(n=770), 2011-29.2%(475) and 63.4%(n=552), 39 2012-23.7%(n=301) and 62.7%(n=603). Among the 74 sensitive strains, the genotypes identified were: 29.7% (n=22) Beijing, 17.6% (n=13) LAM, 16.2% (n=12) H4/ural, 8.1% (n=6) Haarlem, t1&t3 6.8% (n=5), and types x, H1, and Cameroon were 1.4% (n=1) each. thirteen (17.6%) strains could not be classified based on their spoligotype pattern and were labeled as “indeterminate” (was named “Moldova like H37Rv”). Among 148 MDR-tB strains, the genotypes identified were: H4/ural - 50.7% (n=75), Beijing – 43.2% (n=64), LAM - 1.4% (n=2), x - 0.7% (n=1) and “indeterminate” - 4.1% (n=6). From 148 MDRtB strains, 71 strains were also resistant to second line drugs (xDRtB), among those 49.0% (n=35) were Beijing and 35% (n=25) were H4/ural genotypes. the level of xDRtB increases considerable during these years. In 2008 the level of xDR among MDRtB patients was 7.4,0% and increased up to13,8% in 2011. the treatment success of M&xDRtB cases was very low and mortality rate very high –49.0% and 20.4% (81,7% and 6.6% in pandrug-susceptible cohort). Conclusion: M&xDRtB are a serious problem in the R. Moldova, having major public health and economic consequences. the increased number of tB resistant cases influences of the treatment outcomes of these patients. Beijing and H4/ural genotypes of Mtb are predominating among MDRtB patients and significantly are associated with xDRtB (P<0.001). the accumulation of a greater number of MDR strains in society can lead to the infection of population and increase the number of xDRtB cases. 40 TB EPIDEMIOLOGY I OP11 uRAL FAMILY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS: NOT SLEEPING BEAST ANYMORE? Igor Mokrousov1 1 st. Petersburg Pasteur institute Mycobacterium tuberculosis population structure is predominantly clonal and its families may follow different paradigms of evolution and adaptation. Here, I systematically and critically review trends in evolution of pathobiology and phylogeography of the less popular and seemingly nonexciting ural family. Genetic, phenotypic and other data on ural family isolates were extracted from original publications in order to trace their distribution both at global and within-country levels. Recent reports from the ural region in Russia confirm my previous assertion of the smaller than initially assumed rate of the ural genotype in this area. In contrast, its frequencies peak in southern ukraine and Georgia, up to 19%. Accordingly, North/East Pontic area may have been the area of origin and primary dispersal of the ural family in Eurasia. the MIRu-vNtR based minimum spanning tree of ural strains appears to lack any phylogeographic structure but this may be biased by different size of the local collections. ural strains are not marked with exceptional pathogenic capacities and increased transmissibility as demonstrated by prison based studies, mice and macrophage models, epidemiological studies, autopsy and human genetics studies. As a result, geographic distribution of the ural family is still circumscribed mainly to its area of origin and primary dispersal in central Eurasia. on the other hand, a non-association with multidrug resistance appears more controversial. Indeed metaanalysis of studies across former Soviet union shows decreased odds of being MDR for ural versus Beijing families (P<0.00001) and similar prevalence of MDR in ural and other non-Beijing genotypes (P=0.8). However, MDR ural strains start to dramatically prevail in some parts of Eastern Europe and European Russia. It may be that a more hazardous drugresistant sublineage of the ural family commences to emerge, as yet, at regional scale. Acknowledgement: Russian Science Foundation (project 14-14-00292). OP12 MAP AFRICAN TB - POPuLATION STRuCTuRE AND EVOLuTION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx IN AFRICA Patrick Beckert1, Ellen Bruske2, Florian Gehre3, Elisabeth Sanchez-Padilla4, Véronique N. Penlap Beng5, Abraham Alabi6, Bertrand Lell6, Thomas A. kohl1, Francine Ntoumi7, Matthias Frank2, Maryline Bonnet4, Bouke C. de jong3, Andrea Rachow8, Michael hölscher8, Stefan Niemann1 1 Molecular Mycobacteriology, research center borstel, German center for infection research, borstel, Germany 2 institute for tropical Medicine, German center for infection research, university of tuebingen 3 institute for tropical Medicine, Mycobacteriology unit 4 epicentre 5 laboratory for tuberculosis research, university of yaoundé i 6 centre de recherches Médicales de lambaréné (cermel), Albert schweitzer Hospital 7 Fondation congolaise Pour la recherche Médicale 8 Department of infectious Diseases & tropical Medicine, German center for infection research, university of Munich According to the World Health Organization an estimated number of 2.8 million people were newly infected by tuberculosis (tB) and 690,000 died from tB in Africa (2013). Even more worrisome is the emergence of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtBC) isolates in Africa. Since 2011 the number of TB patients infected with multidrugresistant (MDR), MtBC strains, strains resistant to at least the two most effective antibiotics isoniazid and rifampicin, has doubled. Especially in Sub-Saharan Africa with its high rate of HIv co- infected people, the effective transmission of MDR tB is a threatening scenario. To get an insight in transmission dynamics of TB in Africa we analyze the population structure of the MtBC in Africa using molecular typing methods (spacer oligonucleotide typing (spoligotyping), 24-loci mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units - variable number of tandem repeats (MIRu-vNtR) typing). These methods are ideally suited to analyze the population structure and chains of transmission of MtBC isolates. So far 2,900 African MtBC isolates from 14 countries, originating from Western Africa (420), Central Africa (1,140), Eastern Africa (930) and Southern Africa (450) have been genotyped. In addition to classical genotyping the genome of selected isolates is 41 analyzed by whole-genome sequencing (WGS). the first analysis of the population structure revealed that 58% of MtBC isolates belong to a cluster of strains. Clustering of strains indicates patient-topatient transmission of tB; this can be seen in all investigated countries. In addition to that crossborder transmission of antibiotic susceptible MtBC isolates in Kenya and Tanzania as well as Gabon and Cameroon was observed. Furthermore, analysis of isolates from Mozambique, Gabon and Swaziland showed active transmission of clonal MDR strains within the local population. At a first glance, we had an in-depth look into isolates from Gabon and Swaziland. We further analyzed those isolates by WGS and could confirm effective patient-to-patient transmission of MDR strains in two African countries. to prevent further spreading of the MDR strains in Gabon we established a molecular test assay to rapidly detect the MDR strains in Gabon. therefore we identified, based on the WGS data, a specific single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) for the MDR cluster and designed a real-time-PCR based assay to detect this SNP. In conclusion, our study identified transmission of different MtBC lineages all over the African continent as well as spreading of already MDR strains in some countries. these results give a first impression of the population structure and transmission of MtBC isolates in Africa. to prevent further spreading of tB, especially MDR tB in Africa we will continue our study and aim to establish a database of the population structure of the MtBC in Africa. OP13 ChALLENGES IN SETTING-uP MOLECuLAR DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS FOR TuBERCuLOSIS DRuG RESISTANCE DETECTION AND EPIDEMIOLOGY STuDIES IN LOW-INCOME COuNTRIES Voahangy Rasolofo1, Marie Sylvianne Rabodoarivelo1, Noël Ratovonirina1, Solohery Razafimahatratra1, juan Carlos Palomino2, Christophe Sola3, Fanjasoa Rakotomanana4, Anandi Martin2 1 unité des Mycobactéries, institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Antananarivo, Madagascar 2 laboratory of Microbiology, Department of biochemistry and Microbiology, Ghent university, Gent, belgium 3 institut de biologie intégrative de la cellule, université Paris-saclay, orsay, France 4 unité D’epidémiologie, institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Antananarivo, Madagascar tuberculosis (tB) is a serious health problem in developing countries worsened by HIv co-infection and the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (xDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains. Novel molecular technologies 42 are now available for rapid screening of TB drug resistance. Genotyping is also currently used for molecular epidemiology studies. They are powerful tools for the surveillance of MDR-tB, for tracking strain transmission in a population or identifying hotspots of TB transmission. However current molecular tests require DNA extraction from either M. tuberculosis isolates or ideally from sputum samples. Moreover, in low-income countries, performing this type of tests is often restricted by constraints of both sputum storage and safely transport from peripheral health centres to central laboratories. To help overcome such problems, we recently implemented sputum collection, transport, and DNA extraction from different supports such as filter cards and direct smear to study MDR-tB in low-income settings by using the Genotyping MtBDRplus test. We also carried out a molecular epidemiology study of TB in Antananarivo. the objective was to assess whether it was feasible to identify hotspots of TB transmission by combining two methods: the determination of genotypic clusters by M. tuberculosis strain spoligotyping with DNA extracted from stained sputum smears, and the identification of tB case clusters by Geographical Information System. Because of its simplicity and ease of transport, commercialized storage and transport supports are different systems that have the potential to be used widely in remote endemic areas where specimen collection is most difficult to perform and can potentially be used for epidemiology study. The main goal of this presentation is to discuss the potential use of DNA extracted from different supports for subsequent molecular testing. We will discuss advantages and disadvantages of these systems. TB EPIDEMIOLOGY II OP14 INSIGhTS FROM MOLECuLAR TYPING INTO ThE RAPIDLY EVOLVING EPIDEMIOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE OF TuBERCuLOSIS IN SICILY Celestino Bonura1, Michel Gomgnimbou2, Guislaine Refrégier3, Christophe Sola4, Caterina Mammina1 1 Department of sciences for Health Promotion and Mother-child care « G. D’alessandro », university of Palermo, italy 2 centre Muraz, bobo-Dioulasso, burkina Faso 3 institut de biologie intégrative de la cellule, orsay, France 4 institut de Génétique et Microbiologie, université Paris-sud-cnrs, orsay, France Epidemiology of tuberculosis (tB) in Sicily is evolving with the most striking feature being the rapidly increasing proportion of cases in the foreign-born population. An observational study of the tB notifications in the years 2010-2014 has been performed by analyzing the Sistema informativo delle Malattie infettive database. A molecular epidemiological analysis of 151 isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtBC), of which 81 from foreign-born patients, identified in Palermo in the years 2012-2013, was also carried out by spoligotyping and 24-loci MIRu-vNtR typing. Susceptibility testing to 1st line antiTB drugs was also carried out. In the period unders tudy, 1124 new tB cases have been notified in Sicily with a mean annual notification rate of 4.50 cases per 100.000 inhabitants (from 3.96 in 2011 to 5.00 in 2014). the proportion of tB cases in the foreign-born individuals was increasing from 36.4 in 2010 to 58.8 in 2014. The median age of foreign-born patients was significantly lower than the Italian-born (30.75 vs. 48.92 years, P < 0.001). the distribution by age class was also significantly different, with the largest proportion of tB cases among the foreign-born sub-population in the 1544 age class, whereas the Italian-born cases were equally distributed in the 15-44, 45-64 and >64 age classes. The diagnostic delay proved to be longer in Italian-born than in foreign-born patients (104.15 vs. 89.95 days). Fourteen lineages and 33 sublineages showing a different distribution among the two patients subpopulations were detected. only two MDR isolates were identified from an Italian born elderly patient and an Eritrean young patient (Beijing lineage). TB epidemiology in Sicily is a complex mix of reactivation in the autochthonous population and in sub-populations of immigrants from high endemic countries and recent transmission among vulnerable subgroups of both foreign and Italian origin. An integrated approach using both conventional and molecular tools is necessary to accurately assess and monitor TB epidemiology in this geographical area. OP15 COMPLEx GENOMIC DIVERSITY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS IN EThIOPIA Iñaki Comas1, Sebastien Gagneux2, David Stucki3, Douglas Young4, Abraham Aseffa5, Stefan Berg6 1 center for Public Health research (csispFisabio), ciber epidemiology and Public Health 2 Department of Medical Parasitology and infection biology, swiss tropical and Public Health institute, university of basel, switzerland 3 swiss tph 4 Mrc National institute for Medical research, Mill Hill, london 5 Amauer Hansen research insitute 6 Animal and Plant Health Agency Recent publications have highlighted the diversity of the tuberculosis bacillus in Ethiopia. However a deep genomic sampling of this diversity has not been done before. We reasoned that by rationally choosing a collection of strains representing common and rare strain types in Ethiopia we could at the same time describe the genomic diversity of the bacteria in the region and help to distinguish between competing models of the timing and origin of the MtBC. As expected analyses corroborates the highly complex population structure of the pathogen paralleling that observed in human populations. This complex population structure paradoxically adds more uncertainties about when and how tuberculosis became a global disease. Funding: Ramón y Cajal and MINECo spanish research grants (RyC-2012-10627, SAF201343521-R), Medical Research Council uk (grant u.1175.02.002.00015.01), the Swiss National Science Foundation (PP0033-119205), the National Institutes of Health (AI090928 and HHSN266200700022C), Wellcome trust, uk (grant number 075833/A/04/z). 43 OP16 COMPARATIVE INTRADERMAL TuBERCuLIN TEST IN DAIRY CATTLE IN ThE NORTh OF ECuADOR AND RISk FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITh BOVINE TuBERCuLOSIS IN ANIMAL AND huMANS Freddy Proano-Perez1, Lenin Ron-Garrido1, Ricardo Benitez-Capistros1, Francoise Portaels2, Leen Rigouts2 1 universidad De las Fuerzas Armadas espe; universidad central Del ecuador 2 institute of tropical Medicine of Antwerp Bovine tuberculosis (BtB) is a chronic zoonotic disease caused by Mycobacterium bovis, which has a worldwide distribution in domestic and wildlife animals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the state of the disease in cattle and humans, and evaluate the risk factors associated in the transmission of BTB. 20 dairy herds comprising 2,022 cattle were selected from medium and large size herds located in Mejia canton, the major dairy production area in northern Ecuador. Each animal was tested using the comparative intradermal tuberculin test (CItt); and one year later, a follow up test was performed in the same herds. In humans, the study was carried out in 157 people, conformed by farm workers and slaughterhouse workers, with the purpose to evaluate the prevalence of Mycobacterium spp. in risk populations by tuberculin skin test (tSt) and analyse risk factors. the true annual incidence was 1.70%, and the true prevalence was 7.41% and 7.13%, respectively. the prevalence was 0.27% and 0.57% in medium sized herds, respectively, compared with 8.63% and 8.43% in large herds. the number of skin test–positive cases also increased significantly with age, contacts with other species of animals, and introduction of new cattle. Herd prevalence was 55% in the first year and 65% in the follow up study. Mycobacterium spp. was estimated in 29% of the farm and slaughterhouse workers. the results establish a significant association among the positivity of TST to masculine gender (P=0,026), consumption of milk coming from farms, consuming raw milk, and consumption of elaborated cheeses made by hand. Consumption of raw milk gave an or=4,65. this study shows the necessity for a national BTB control program in Ecuador which should be supported by sanitary policies to allow the identification of the endemic areas nationwide. In addition, due to the lack of knowledge in cattle farmers about this zoonoses, education of farm and abattoir workers about the disease could help prevent new cases in animals and humans, and help improve the use of preventive measures. 44 SPECIAL TOPIC “TB ELIMINATION” OP17 WhAT hAVE STuDIES ON ThE PROTEIN ExPRESSION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS BROuGhT uS? jeroen de keijzer1, P. de haas2, A. Mulder2, j. de Beer2, A. de Ru1, P. van Veelen1, Dick van Soolingen3 1 leiden university Medical centre 2 National institute for Public Health and the environment 3 National institute for Public Health and the environment, bilthoven; Department of Medical Microbiology, radboud university Nijmegen, the Netherlands the field of mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics focusses on the identification and quantitation of proteins without the need of antibodies, which are often lacking for M. tuberculosis proteins. The astonishing development in MS technology greatly enhanced the potential of proteomics in life sciences. In our laboratory, we use the so called “bottom-up” proteomics workflow, where proteins are digested and the resulting peptides are sequenced. We have applied this principle for the classification of mycobacteria by species-specific peptide sequences and to confirm or correct existing genome annotations. With the usage of mass-tags we can quantitatively study the proteome of M. tuberculosis. We have applied a quantitative proteomics approach to study the M. tuberculosis Beijing family, which consists out of the more ancient (atypical) and modern (typical) sublineage. Especially the more recently evolved modern Beijing strain has been associated with (multi)drug resistance and the ability to cause and spread tuberculosis. In this study, we systematically compared protein expression levels of ancient and modern Beijing strains. Despite the uniform protein abundance ratios in both sublineages, we identified two proteins as differentially regulated, which could explain the apparent increased adaptation of modern Beijing strains. In addition, we demonstrate the preexistence of several, possibly unique, drug efflux pumps in the proteome of M. tuberculosis Beijing. To further examine how protein regulation may help M. tuberculosis Beijing strains cope with antibiotics, we examined the initial response of M. tuberculosis Beijing B0/W148 to rifampicin. the induction of the DosR regulon and regulation of post-translational modifications demonstrated that phenotypic drug tolerance is likely to play a role in the success of this particular Beijing strain. In fact, for the first time, we provide evidence that conversion of asparagine to aspartic acid in the rifampicin resistance determining region, by a chemical process known as deamidation, might be a common cause of rifampicin tolerance. As rifampicin treatment is capable of inducing a dormant phenotype in vitro it will be of the essence to develop drugs that act bactericidal in the case of latent tuberculosis. Thioridazine is known to be effective against the dormant form of M. tuberculosis. Moreover, thioridazine displayed strong synergistic effects with other drugs. It had been hypothesized that this might be caused by a inhibition of antibiotic extruding efflux pumps. However, unbiased proteomic analysis of thioridazine treated M. tuberculosis showed that a change in cell envelope permeability is responsible for a rapid influx of chemical compounds. MS-based proteomics opened the way to study mycobacterial protein regulation. therefore, we strongly believe that proteomics will play an increasingly large role in future studies. OP18 IDENTIFICATION OF MuTATIONS AFFECTING CANDIDATE GENES POTENTIALLY INVOLVED IN PhENOTYPIC RESISTANCE TO BEDAquILINE AND DELAMANID IN M. TuBERCuLOSIS Simone Battaglia1, Andrea Maurizio Cabibbe1, Elisa Schena1, Emanuele Borroni1, Paolo Miotto1, Daniela Cirillo1 1 emerging bacterial Pathogens unit, Division of immunology, transplantation and infectious Diseases, San Raffaele Scientific Institute The upsurge of multi- and extensively- drug resistant tuberculosis (M/xDR-tB) is reducing dramatically the spectrum of available drugs for treatment. Therefore effective compounds are needed. Among new anti tB drugs, bedaquiline (BDq) and delamanid (DLM), are conditionally approved. Mutations responsible for BDq-R are found in atpE gene. However, other spontaneous BDq-R mutants harbour mutations in the non-target Rv0678 gene, a negative regulator of the MmpS5-MmpL5 efflux pumps. Foremost mutations in Rv0678 are related to clofazimine resistance. DLM is a pro-drug requiring intracellular activation by Rv3547 protein. Mutations in Rv3547 gene or in fbia, fbib, fbiC and fgd1 genes (F420 biochemical pathway) are involved in DLM-R phenotype. taking advantage of Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) approach, we analysed eight genes putatively involved in BDq-R and DLM-R on 219 MtB isolates (79 susceptible to rifampicin (RIF) and isoniazid (INH), 11 RIF-R/INH-S, 96 MDR, 11 MDR+AG-R, 12 MDR+Fq-R and 10 xDR) representing 13 different lineages. We focused our attention on atpE, Rv0678, 45 mmpL5, mmpS5 genes for BDq-R; ddn, fgd1, fbia, fbib and fbiC genes for DLM-R. our data allowed to identify several new non-synonymous mutations in genes putatively involved in BDq-R. In particular, although no mutations were observed in atpE, the other genes analysed carried substitutions: 7 strains have mutations in Rv0678 gene (v3I, N4t (2), M17v, L32S, G87R, R134G); 18 in mmpL5 (P70L, D128N (3), S325G, A349t, E552G, L634q, F696L (8), q702k, q707k); 2 in mmpS5 (G109S). We observed mutations possibly involved in DLM-R in: Rv3547 (3 isolates: R72W, E83D, W88StoP); fgd1 (1: G314E); fbia [8: q120R (4), t302M (4)]; fbib [62: F220L (56), D315A (1), k448R (6)]; fbiC (3: v41M, t273A, I693v). From this subset of data, we did not observe particular correlation among mutations in candidate genes for BDq-R or DLM-R and the resistance pattern and/ or genotype of the strains included in the study. Previously reported lineage-specific substitution in fgd1 (k270M: Haarlem; k296E: West Africanum 2) and mmpL5 (D767N: Beijing) were also detected. Phenotypic testing is under investigation to better understand the potential role of these new mutations in the emergence of BDq-R and DLM-R. the WGS approach showed its usefulness in analysing a wide range of DR-related genes in a short time, allowing to perform a fast analysis of mutations linked to anti-TB drug-resistance. OP19 DETECTION OF PYRAZINAMIDE hETERORESISTANCE IN M. TuBERCuLOSIS jim Werngren1, Mikaela Glader2, Sven hoffner3 1 unit for Highly Pathogenic bacteria, Department of Microbiology, Public Health Agency of sweden 2 Dept. of Medical biochemistry and Microbiology, uppsala university 3 Dept. of Microbiology, tumour and cell biology, Karolinska institute Aim: Pyrazinamide (PzA) is a first line key agent in the effective treatment of tB, including PzA susceptible MDR-tB. occasionally, tB patients might have mixed infections with both drug sensitive and resistant strains. This is termed heteroresistance. If 10% of the bacterial population is resistant to PzA, there is an increased risk for poor treatment outcome. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of the three established drug susceptibility testing (DSt) techniques BACtEC MGIt 960, Wayne’s pyrazinamidase test and Sanger sequencing of the pnca gene to detect 10% PzA heteroresistance. Methods: Mixed cultures of the fully drug susceptible M. tubertculosis H37Rv reference strain and two laboratory generated isogenic H37Rv mutants (with C475G and T254C pnca mutations, respectively) were made in proportions of 100%, 10%, 5% and 1% of the PzA-resistant (PzA-R) strain. Corresponding mixed cultures were also made using one drug susceptible 46 and one PzA-resistant MDR clinical isolate with the T62G pnca mutation, both belonging to one specific MIRu cluster. Additional mixes of 50%, 75%, 90% and 99% of the PzA-R strains were prepared for the Wayne’s test. tests were for all methods performed in duplicates at two separate occasions. Results: using the MGIt system, the in vitrogenerated PzA-R strains were generally detected at a 5% proportion while the clinical PzA-R isolate only was detected at the critical 10% proportion, except for one test occasion. Sanger sequencing was unable to detect 10% PzA heteroresistance. Wayne’s test also failed to detect the critical level of 10% PzA resistance, instead it displayed misguiding results determining highly resistant samples as susceptible. Conclusion: Heteroresistance is caused by present drug resistance development and/or dual infections with one resistant and one susceptible strain. Mixed infections with resistant strains may occur in up to 20% of all tB cases in high burden areas, according to limited data. Our study showed that only the phenotypic BACtEC MGIt system was capable in determining the critical proportion of 10% PzA resistance, whereas, neither the Sanger nor the Wayne’s test were successful in this respect. this indicates a need for diagnostic tools with increased sensitivity to determine heteroresistance in M. tuberculosis. keywords: Pyrazinamide, heteroresistance, tB, drug resistance, DSt hOST – PAThOGEN ITERACTION OP20 ThE IMPACT OF LIPIDS IN ThE GLOBAL GENETIC ExPRESSION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS DuRING ITS ADAPTATION TO DORMANCY Diana Angelica Aguilar Ayala1, Dieter De Coninck2, Dieter Deforce2, Filip Van Nieuwerburgh2, juan Carlos Palomino1, Peter Vandamme1, jorge González Y Merchand3, Anandi Martin1 1 laboratory of Microbiology, Department of biochemistry and Microbiology, Ghent university, Gent 2 laboratory of Pharmaceutical biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical sciences, Ghent university, Gent 3 Departamento de Microbiología, escuela Nacional de ciencias biológicas, instituto Politécnico Nacional It is estimated that one third of the world’s population has latent tuberculosis infection (LtBI). LtBI is asymptomatic; the tB bacillus becomes refractory to antibiotics and, in low- and moderate-endemic countries, most active tB cases arise by reactivation of LTBI. Although several in vitro models exist to mimic the environment of dormant bacilli during latency, cultures grown in the presence of lipids, the most abundant molecules surrounding bacilli in vivo, have not been extensively explored. We considered previous studies on gradual depletion of oxygen and the use of long-chain fatty acids, as carbon source, which make the bacilli switch-on their program related to a dormant stage: slowed growth, accumulation of lipid bodies, and development of drug tolerance. Also the fact that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) accesses fatty acids and cholesterol from the macrophage host cell and use them to establish the infection and to survive during dormancy. Hence, the objective of this study was to determine and analyze the global genetic expression of Mtb in an in vitro model of dormancy based on lipids. Mtb H37Rv was adapted to grow in Dubos medium supplemented with a mixture of cholesterol plus longchain fatty acids (palmitic, stearic and oleic acids) in aerobic conditions, which was lately used as control condition. Subsequently, an in vitro dormancy model for Mtb, based on oxygen depletion in the presence of a mixture of these lipids was standardized. Afterwards, genes related to cellular cycle, immunodominant antigens and lipid metabolism of Mtb were assessed by qRt-PCR. to evaluate its relevant expression, hypoxic condition’s results were compared with those from aerobic cultures of Mtb. Finally, the global transcriptome of Mtb during its in vitro adaptation to dormancy in the presence of lipids was analyzed by RNAseq. We previously reported that Mtb was able to persist during its in vitro adaptation to dormancy in the presence of lipids. Initial results of genetic expression showed that during this in vitro latency model of Mtb, the presence of lipids favored overexpression of some genes related to virulence and its lipid metabolism increased, leading to synthesis of triglycerides and structural lipids of the cell wall. The transcriptome of Mtb gene expression during its active growth and in vitro dormancy in the lipid-rich environment is under bioinformatics analysis and will be discussed during the presentation. OP21 PRELIMINARY IN SILICO-BASED INSIGhTS ON ThE FuNCTIONALITY OF CRISPR-Cas IN M. TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx Guislaine Refrégier1, Matthieu Petrou1, Christophe Sola1 1 institute for integrative biology of the cell, université Paris-sud CRISPR locus has been used extensively for more than 20 years to provide spoligotyping profiles of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolates. The corresponding technique is still widely used for molecular epidemiological surveillance and clinical microbiology, and CRISPR locus is considered to evolve neutrally. While their functional role was hypothesized based on sequence similarity of spacers to phages in 2005, it is only in 2007 that the functional role of CRISPRs in association with the adjacent cas genes was demonstrated in Streptococcus thermophilus: they can provide acquired resistance against bacteriophages by 3 steps, 1) spacer acquisition, 2) CRISPR-RNA processing and 3) association to and degradation of the targets. other roles have been identified in other species: prevention of plasmid conjugation in Staphylococcus epidermidis, expression modulation in E. coli, Salmonella and in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. CRISPR-Cas systems, through cas9 also serve as genome engineering tools. However, there is still poor information on the potential roles, if any, of CRISPRCas system in M. tuberculosis. We first explored the potential functionality of Cas proteins by analyzing their sequence and structure conservation as compared to Staphylococcus epidermidis, a species that carries the same type of CRISPR-Cas system (type III-A). In contrast with the well-documented absence of spacer acquisition 47 in M. tuberculosis complex, the structure of proteins classically involved in spacer acquisition (step1, proteins Cas 1 and Cas2) was largely conserved. the protein involved in crRNA processing (step2, Cas 6) was slightly shorter in M. tuberculosis but still exhibited high structure similarity to that of S. epidermidis. The quality of structure prediction of proteins involved in association and degradation (step 3) was too low to allow any prediction. Second, mining available genomic data within PolytB, we studied the sequence diversity inside M. tuberculosis complex. We detected some mutations, however with little or no impact on protein structure. Altogether, cas genes do not seem to evolve as pseudo-genes in M. tuberculosis complex. If they still have a function, the well-documented absence of spacer acquisition suggests that its function could be different from that of other CRISPR-Cas systems. OP22 CxCL9, CxCL10, AND IL6 CYTOkINES AS POTENTIAL BIOMARkERS OF TREATMENT RESPONSE IN PuLMONARY TB PATIENTS Vladyslav Nikolayevskyy1, Yanina Balabanova1, Irina kontsevaya2, Olga Ignatyeva2, Edita Pimkina3, Girts Skenders4, Francis Drobniewski1 1 imperial college london 2 samara tb service, samara, russian Federation 3 infectious Diseases and tb Hospital, Vilnius, lithuania 4 clinic of tuberculosis and lung Diseases, riga east university Hospital, latvia Background: tuberculosis (tB) poses a major health problem globally causing over 9 million new cases and 1.5 million deaths annually. To date only 2 months culture conversion has proven effective in predicting favourable outcomes of drug sensitive tB; no reliable biomarkers for drug resistant and MDR/xDR tB have been identified so far. Novel biomarkers research is urgently needed to improve our understanding of TB disease development and progression leading to cure, failure or relapse. Levels of circulating proinflammatory cytokines and other molecules involved in cellular immune response pathways as well as their kinetics during TB infection were shown to be different in fast and slow responders indicating their potential role as biomarkers of treatment response and cure. Materials and methods: Within the Eu FP7 funded PANNEt project large longitudinal cohorts comprising a total of 308 pulmonary drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB patients have been established and followed up for up to 24 months at three sites in Russia, Lithuania, and Latvia. In our study we analysed levels of thirty soluble pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and growth factors in plasma samples taken from 61 fully sensitive patients at diagnosis and different time points during anti-TB 48 treatment using Luminex® technology. Conventional laboratory data (smear microscopy and bacteriology) as well as baseline clinical and epidemiologic data was collected. Patients were classified into two groups (fast and slow responders) based on culture conversion at 2 months of treatment. 24 loci vNtR genotyping was used to identify cases of reinfections in TB patients. Results: Levels of CxCL9 and IL-6 were significantly higher in slow responders than those in fast responders (p=0.0132 and p=0.0411 respectively) while CxCL10 level was significantly higher in fast responders (p=0.0047) suggesting that CxCL9, CxCL10 and IL-6 can be considered biomarkers of treatment response. Differences in levels of other cytokines/chemokines between two groups were not statistically significant. Analysis of kinetics of cytokines allowed to identify the certain common trends, including levels of many circulating cytokines going down during the treatment with concentrations in slow responders remaining higher at months 2-6 compared to those in fast responders. Reinfection with a new TB strain not matching the original 24 loci vNtR profile was detected in one patient only. OP23 spans approx. 90 kb, including the MAP specific large sequence polymorphisms LSP14 and 15, harboring 64 genes of which 45 responded to zinc starvation. of these, 35 were predicted to be regulated by the major zinc metalloregulator FurB. this clustering of zinc responsive genes in MAP is unique as it was not found in other mycobacteria. the znGi harbors a MAP specific operon, which showed no homologies to genes in other mycobacteria and was predicted to encode for two ABC-transporters (mptABC and mptDEF) involved in metal transport. We found that the expression of mptABC was highly induced at low zinc concentrations. In addition, heterologous reporter gene assays with the lacz gene under control of the mptABC promoter in M. smegmatis (MSMEG) and in a MSMEG∆furB deletion mutant revealed that the zinc dependent expression was mediated by FurB via a conserved mycobacterial FurB recognition site. thus, this FurB regulated zinc responsive operon seems to represent an additional zinc transporter in MAP. * Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute for Microbiology, Department of Infectious Diseases, university of veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bischofsholer Damm 15, 30173 Hannover, Germany, Phone: ++49-511 8567730, Fax: ++49-511 8567697, Email: elke.eckelt @tiho-hannover.de EVIDENCE FOR MYCOBACTERIuM AVIuM SSP. PARATuBERCuLOSIS SPECIFIC ZINC TRANSPORT SYSTEMS Elke Eckelt1, Ralph Goethe1, jochen Meens1, Michael jarek2 1 institute for Microbiology, university of Veterinary Medicine school Hannover 2 Genome Analytics, Helmholtz centre for infection research Iron and zinc are the most abundant transition metals in all living cells and required for a multiplicity of biological processes. Hence, availability of these molecules is essential for survival. Host cells have made use of this circumstance and developed a major defence mechanism, the nutritional immunity. An active alteration of metal concentration leads to either intoxication or starvation of invading bacteria. thus, maintenance of metal homeostasis is crucial in bacterial pathogenicity and many pathogenic bacteria have evolved sensitive regulated metal transport systems to overcome this particular host defence mechanism. The ruminant pathogen Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) displays a unique gut tropism and causes paratuberculosis, a chronic progressive intestinal inflammation. In addition MAP displays defects in genes for mycobactin synthesis. Hence, we were interested to find particularities in MAP metal homeostasis. By metal starvation experiments, subsequent RNA sequencing and transcriptome analysis, we identified a MAP specific zinc responsive genomic island (znGi). the znGi 49 TOPIC ENVIRONMENTAL MYCOBACTERIA OP24 Ms1, A NOVEL sRNA INTERACTING WITh ThE RNAP CORE IN MYCOBACTERIA Libor krásný1, jarmila hnilicová1, Michaela Šiková1, Martina janoušková1, Jiří Pospíšil1 1 institute of Microbiology, Academy of sciences of the czech republic Small RNAs (sRNAs) are molecules essential for a number of regulatory processes in the bacterial cell. We have characterized Ms1, a sRNA that is highly expressed in Mycobacterium smegmatis during stationary phase of growth. We show that Ms1 interacts with the RNA polymerase (RNAP) core that is free of the primary sigma factor (σA) or any other σ factor. this contrasts with the situation in most other species where it is 6S RNA that interacts with RNAP and this interaction requires the presence of the primary sigma factor. We demonstrate that Ms1 functions by stabilizing the RNAP core, protecting it against degradation. thus, Ms1 represents a novel type of small RNAs interacting with RNAP. OP25 INCIDENCE AND DIVERSITY OF NONTuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA IN MOSCOW REGION Maria Alvarez Figueroa1, Valentina Barilo2, Anastasiya Prokopenko3 1 central research institute for epidemiology of Federal service for surveillance on consumers’ rights Protection and Human Well-being, Moscow; the Moscow research and clinical center for tuberculosis control of the Moscow Government Health Department; Federal state Budgetary Institution “scientific Center for expertise of Medical Application Products” Ministry of Health of the russian Federation 2 the Moscow research and clinical center for tuberculosis control of the Moscow Government Health Department 3 central research institute for epidemiology of Federal service for surveillance on consumers’ rights Protection and Human Well-being, Moscow, russia the incidence of tuberculosis (tB) in Russia is very high. Reported incidence rates of TB in Russia are 68.1 in 2012, 63 in 2013 and 59.5 in 2014 as well as in Moscow amount 40.4 in 2012, 32 in 2013 and 28.1 in 2014. Among them over 40% were microbiologically 50 confirmed. there is no statistical data of mycobacteriosis incidence in Russia. The information of diversity of nontuberculous mycobacteria is very scares excepting of North-West of Russia. The aim of this study was to determine the population structure of clinical isolates of mycobacteria and to estimate diversity of NtMB in Moscow region in 2012-2014. Design/Methods: the species identification of clinical isolates of mycobacteria had received from inpatients of Clinic №2 of the Moscow Research and Clinical Center for Tuberculosis control was carried out by immunochromatographic assay (Standard Diagnostics, korea), routine biochemical tests, PCR-Rt (AmpliSens, Russia) and sequencing (16S rDNA, ItS, hsp 65). All laboratories’ techniques were identical throughout the period of 3 years. Results: A total of 526 mycobacterial isolates, 17 (3.23%) were determined as NtMB in 2012, of 562 isolates – 30 (5.34%) were NtMB in 2013, and of 558 – 38 (6.81%) were NtMB in 2014 (p<0.01, t-test, 2012 / 2014). We found out a 1.76-fold increase in number of NtMB in 2013 compared to 2012 and a 1.27-fold in 2014 compared to 2013. We did not found advantage of isolation of NtMB from patients with HIv-status. the proportion was 54.94% (9 of 17) in 2012, 40% (12 of 30) in 2013, and 47.37% (18 of 38) in HIv+ patients. there was weak correlation between HIv- status of patients and the diagnosis of mycobacteriosis (according an official AtS/IDSA statement, 2006): r=+0.51. For the three-year period were isolated a total of 85 clinical isolates from individual patients. the frequency of M. avium complex, as expected, was higher, 67.06% (n=57). M. fortuitum have been represented in 17.65% (n=15) and M. kansasii in 8.24% (n=7) cases. The remaining species were isolated in single cases: M. abscessus, M. celatum, M. chelonae, M. gordonae, M. szulgai (each of them in 1.18%). For the first time we managed to isolate M. colombiense from sputum in a patient (HIv-negative) who had at the same time cutaneous TB. Conclusions: The use of molecular typing methods allowed us to estimate the increasing proportion of NtMB among clinical isolates of mycobacteria during observed period. the most frequent species in Moscow are M. avium complex, M. fortuitum and M. kansasii. OP26 FIRST GENOTYPING STuDY OF CLINICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MYCOBACTERIuM uLCERANS ISOLATES FROM FRENCh GuIANA REVEALS uNPRECEDENTED GENETIC DIVERSITY Yann Reynaud1, julie Millet1, David Couvin1, Aaron Morris2, Rodolphe Gozlan2, jean-François Guéguan2, Nalin Rastogi1, Pierre Couppié 3, Eric Legrand4 1 institut Pasteur, Pointe À Pitre 2 ird, Montpellier, France and cayenne 3 centre Hospitalier André rosemon, cayenne 4 institut Pasteur, Paris Buruli ulcer is an emerging and neglected tropical disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. Few cases have been reported so far in the Americas. With 250 cases reported since 1969, French Guiana is the only Buruli ulcer endemic area in the continent. thus far, no genetic diversity studies of strains of M. ulcerans from French Guiana have been reported. Our goal in the present study was to examine the genetic diversity of M. ulcerans strains in this region by sequencing 6 previously-described variable Number of tandem Repeat (vNtR) markers. A total of 23 DNA samples were purified from ulcer biopsies or derived from pure cultures, and 10 DNA samples from the environment (water, soil, algae, aquatic plant and biofilm). A total of 4 allelic combinations were characterized in our study for clinical samples: genotype I which has been described previously, genotype III and Iv which are very similar to genotype I, and genotype II which has distinctly different characteristics in comparison with the other two genotypes. A total of 5 more genotypes were described in environmental samples. This high degree of genetic diversity appears to be uncommon for M. ulcerans. Further research based on complete genome sequencing of strains belonging to genotypes I and II is in progress and should lead soon to a better understanding of genetic specificities of M. ulcerans strains from French Guiana. OP27 ANALYSIS OF MYCOBACTERIuM ABSCESSuS GENETIC VARIABILITY PROVIDED BY 14-LOCuS VARIABLE-NuMBER TANDEM-REPEAT IN PATIENTS WITh CYSTIC FIBROSIS Alberto Trovato1, Daniela Maria Cirillo1, Rossella Baldan3, Enrico Tortoli1, Stefan Niemann4, Giovanni Taccetti5, Silvia Campana5, Lisa Cariani6, Paola Maria Rancoita7, Thomas kohl4, Tullia Simonetti8 1 emerging bacterial Pathogens unit, Division of immunology, transplantation and infectious Diseases, San Raffaele Scientific Institute Irccs San Raffaele Scientific Institute Molecular Mycobacteriology, research center borstel, German center for infection research, borstel, Germany 5 ospedale Pediatrico Meyer 6 ospedale Maggiore Policlinico 7 università Vita salute san raffaele 8 Azienda ospedaliero-universitaria careggi 3 4 In the last decades nontuberculous mycobacteria have been increasingly reported in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Mycobacterium abscessus (MA) is the more frequently isolated from the lung of CF patients. Whole genome sequencing has produced evidence supporting the splitting of MA in three subspecies: MA abscessus, MA bolletii and MA massiliense and, very recently, a large study has produced the first evidence of a possible person-to-person transmission. Our study aimed at producing a preliminary assessment of the epidemiological value of a customized set of 14 variable-Number tandem-Repeat (vNtR) markers selected among the most variable reported MA-vNtR loci, in order to obtain the highest combined HGDI (Hunter-Gaston Discriminatory Index). A total of 122 strains, collected from 29 CF patients attending three different Italian CF centers, were characterized at subspecies level by sequencing the rpoB gene and then subdivided by using 14 different vNtR loci (MAB-1, -4, -7, -9, -11, -14, -18, -21, -23, -24, -28, -29, tR-109 and -155). MAB-28, initially considered for the high reported heterogeneity, was excluded because of the high average molecular weight of its amplicons and the presence of incomplete repeats, which made difficult to estimate the size on a 3% agarose gel. A good reproducibility was obtained for all the rest of vNtR markers. MAB-11 showed the highest allelic diversity (0.78) followed by MAB-24 (0.75). Crucially, this set of 13-loci perfectly matched the subspecies classification obtained by sequencing the rpoB gene, showing a minimum 5-locus difference among the three different subspecies and some specific signatures. the vNtR analysis also detected five clusters encompassing samples from different patients and in some cases attending different CF centers. In conclusion, a further assessment of the real discriminatory power of this panel of vNtR loci is required in order to confirm the ability of this technique to detect person-to-person transmission and to avoid wrong clustering due to insufficient variability of the markers taken into account. 51 ABSTRACTS OF POSTER PRESENTATIONS (P) DRuG RESISTANCE OF M.tuberculosis P7 P8 inhA AND katG MuTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITh ISONIAZID RESISTANCE IN A CANADIAN PROVINCE Sara Christianson1, Meenu Sharma1, David Long2, hong Zhou2, Zhiwei Gao2, Courtney heffernan2, Richard Long2, joyce Wolfe1 1 Public Health Agency of canada 2 university of Alberta INVASTIGATION OF PRIMARY ANTITuBERCuLOSIS DRuG RESISTANCE uSING BACTEC MGIT 960 SYSTEM IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx STRAINS Ilhan Afsar1, Yusuf Saglam1, Selcuk kaya1, Mustafa Demirci1 1 ikcu Ataturk training and research Hospital Background: Isoniazid (INH) resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtB) has important implications in diagnosis, prophylaxis and treatment of tuberculosis disease (tB). In 2013, Canada reported drug susceptibility results for 1397 MtB complex isolates. INH resistance was reported in 6.7% of cases. This study investigates the prevalence and distribution of gene mutations in the katG gene and inhA promoter region in INH-resistant isolates from Alberta, Canada. Methods: All adult (age >14 years) culture-positive, INH-resistant pulmonary cases of MtB in Alberta, Canada from 1991-2010 were surveyed for this study. In total, 97 INH- resistant MtB strains and 45 susceptible strains were included. The resulting 142 strains were tested for INH resistance at critical concentrations (CC) of 0.1 µg/mL and 0.4 µg/mL. Strains were also tested for mutations in the katG gene and inhA promoter region. Results: of the INH-resistant strains tested, 21 were resistant at only the lower CC of INH and 76 strains were resistant to the higher CC of INH. No mutations were seen in the 45 sensitive strains. Of the strains with low level resistance, 15/21 (71%) had mutations in the inhA promoter region. The most common inhA mutation in these strains was -15 C to t (n=11). one mutation was recorded in the katG gene of the lowlevel resistant strains, but was accompanied by an inhA mutation. Two of the high-level resistant strains had inhA mutations (-15 C to t) and 62 had katG mutations, the most common of which was Ser 315 thr (n=53). ten strains (13%) resistant at the higher INH CC had no inhA or katG mutations. All katG and inhA mutations identified in this study have been previously associated with INH resistance. Conclusion: Mutations in the katG gene and inhA promoter were able to detect 83% of INH-resistant cases in this study population. Mutation rates for genes associated with INH resistance in Alberta are consistent with those reported in the united States and elsewhere. Tuberculosis is a disease that stil keeping its importance. It is first disease in infectious deaths in all deaths among the world. In our study it is targeted to determine primer antituberculosis drug resistance of 59 Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains that have diagnosis of primer tuberculosis the using BACtEC MGIt 960 system in Izmir Atatürk training and research Hospital Departmant of Microbiology in 2010-2014. All patients were newly diagnosed tuberculosis and the mean patients age the strains were isolated were 54.2 (18-88 age) the strains were isolated consequently % 55.9 from sputulum ,%11.9 from surgery materials,%10.1 from urine , %8.5 from biopsy materials, %3.4 from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, %3.4 from the peritoneal fluid, %3.4 from join fluid , %1.7 from the fastinggastric fluid and %1.7 from the wound. In our study,54 (%91,5) strains were sensitive to the all primer antituberculosis drugs, 5 (%8.5) were found to be resistant to one or more antituberculosis drugs. Resistances of the strains that working sensitivities to only streptomycin, isoniazid and rifampycin were detected to be 1(%1.7), 1(%1.7), 2(% 3.4) respectively. Resistance for ethambutol wasn’t detected. total resistance for single drug was detected to be 4 (% 6,8). the strains of multidrug resistance (resistance for rifampin and isoniazid) and any two drugs resistance were not detected. The strain of three drugs resistance was detected to be 1 (%1,7). General resistance of strains to streptomycin, isoniazid, rifampycin and ethambutol were detected to be 2 (% 3.4), 2 (% 3.4), 2 (% 3.4), 1 (% 1.7).the resistance rates of strains have been detected at below of turkey’s resistance rates The aim of our study is to estimate the resistance profiles of 4 major primer antituberculosis drugs for primer diagnosed patients of tuberculosis that detected in İzmir. 52 P15 the sensitivity and specificity were 95% and 98% for slides and Genocard, 96% and 98% for FtA card and 95% and 93.46% for samples stored in ethanol. Conclusion: The four transport and storage supports showed a good sensitivity and specificity for the detection of resistance to RIF and INH in M. tuberculosis strains. Evaluation of the potential use of these four systems to detect RIF and INH resistance from direct sputum samples is under evaluation. PERFORMANCE OF FOuR TRANSPORT AND STORAGE SuPPORTS FOR MOLECuLAR DETECTION OF MuLTIDRuG RESISTANT TuBERCuLOSIS Marie Sylvianne Rabodoarivelo1, Belen Imperiale2, Angela Brandao3, Parveen kumar4, Sarman Singh4, Lucilaine Ferrazoli3, Nora Morcillo2, Voahangy Rasolofo5, juan Carlos Palomino6, Peter Vandamme6, Anandi Martin6 1 unité des Mycobactéries, institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Antananarivo, Madagascar 2 Hospital Dr. cetrángolo, buenos Aires, Argentina 3 instituto Adolfo lutz, Núcleo de tuberculose e Micobacteriosis, sao Paulo, brazil 4 All india institute of Medical sciences, Delhi, india 5 institut Pasteur de Madagascar 6 laboratory of Microbiology, Department of biochemistry and Microbiology, Ghent university, Gent, belgium IN VITRO ANTI-MYCOBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF SELECTED MEDICINAL PLANTS AGAINST MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS AND MYCOBACTERIuM BOVIS STRAINS Abdella Gemechu1, Mirutse Gidaqy2, Gobena Ameni2, Adane Worku2 1 college of Health & Medical sciences, Haramaya university 2 Aklilu lemma institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa university Background: Detection of drug resistant tuberculosis (tB), particularly in low-resource countries, is often hampered by the limitation of transport and storage of samples from remote locations to the reference laboratory. Consequently, the treatment of tB usually starts without the results of drug susceptibility testing (DSt) being known or treatment gets delayed. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of four supports enabling the transport and storage of samples to be used for molecular detection of drug resistance using the commercial Genotype MtBDRplus. Material and methods: We performed a multicenter retrospective study with the following participating sites: Institute Pasteur of Madagascar (IPM); All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, India; Hospital Dr. Cetrángolo, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Instituto Adolfo Lutz, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Fifty Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains were selected at each site (25 MDR and 25 susceptible) to evaluate the DNA extraction and detection of resistance to rifampicin (RIF) and isoniazid (INH) using the Genotype MtBDRplus from samples stored on slides, on filter cards, such as the FtA card (Whatman International Ltd) and the GenoCard (Hain Lifescience, Nehren, Germany), and on samples stored in ethanol. The performance of each system was assessed separately by calculating sensitivity and specificity, compared to the results obtained by DST performed by the proportion method on Löwenstein-jensen (Lj) medium or the MGIt960 system. Results: From all sites, the sensitivity and specificity for detection of resistance to RIF was 95% and 100%, respectively, for DNA extracted from slides and Genocard; 96% and 100% for DNA extracted from FtA card and 96% and 98% for samples stored in ethanol. For the detection of resistance to INH, Background: tuberculosis (tB) is a global burden with one – third of the world ’ s population infected with the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and annually 1.4 million deaths occur due to the disease. This high incidence of infection and the increased rate of multi-drug resistant and extensively-drug resistant strains of the organism further complicated the problem of TB control and have called for an urgent need to develop new anti-TB drugs from plants. In this study, the in vitro activity of root of Calpurnia aurea, seeds of ocimum basilicum, leaves of artemisia abyssinica, Croton macrostachyus, and Eucalyptus camaldulensis were evaluated against M.tuberculosis and M. bovis strains. Methods: Five Ethiopian medicinal plants, root of Calpurnia aurea, seeds of ocimum basilicum, leaves of artemisia abyssinica, Croton macrostachyus, and Eucalyptus camaldulensis used locally for the management of TB. They were investigated for in vitro antimycobacterial activity against M. tuberculosis and M. bovis strains. 80% methanolic extracts of the plant materials were obtained by maceration. The antimycobacterial activity was determined using 96 wells of microplate with the help of visual Resazurin Microtiter Assay. Results: the crude 80% methanolic extracts of the root of C. aurea, seeds of o. basilicum, and leaves of a. abyssinica, C. macrostachyus, and E. camaldulensis had anti-mycobacterial activity with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging from 6.25 – 100 μ g/mL. the MIC of 80% methanol extracts in the order mentioned above ranged 25-100 μ g/ml and 12.5-75 μ g/mL, 25 – 100 μ g/mL and 25 – 50 μ g/mL, 6.25-50 μ g/mL and 12.5-50 μ g/mL, 12.5-100 μ g/mL and 18.25-50 μ g/mL and 6.25-50 μ g/mL and 12.5-50 μ g/mL, respectively for M. tuberculosis and M. bovis strains. P19 53 Conclusions: The results support the local use of these plants in the treatment of TB and it is suggested that these plants may have therapeutic value in the treatment of tB. However, further investigations are needed on isolating chemical constituents responsible for eliciting the observed activity in these plants. keywords: Antimycobacterial activity, Medicinal plants, MIC, REMA, M. tuberculosis & M. bovis strains, Ethiopia P102 PREVALENCE OF BEIjING GENOTYPE AMONG MDR ISOLATES OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS FROM POLAND Monika Kozińska1, Ewa Augustynowicz Kopeć1, Sylwia Brzezińska1, Agnieszka Napiórkowska1, Anna Zabost1 1 research institute of tuberculosis and lung Diseases the Beijing family of Mycobacterium tuberculosis represents about 50% of all tB strains in East Asia and at least 13% of strains worldwide. First reported in East Asian countries where they are highly endemic and later found to be disseminated throughout the world, Beijing family strains are predominant in the former uSSR countries, especially in Russia. With an intrinsic advantage over other M. tuberculosis genotypes in terms of virulence, Beijing lineage strains are notably associated with multiple drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (xDR). In Poland the first incident of Beijing tB was found in 2000. Materials and Methods: A total of 81 MDR M. tuberculosis isolates, collected at the National tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Institute in Warsaw, were included in the study. The isolates were recovered from 81 unrelated pulmonary TB patients (66 men and 15 women) from across Poland. these patients represented all bacteriologically confirmed MDR tB cases reported in Poland in 2012-14. Primary isolation, culturing and species identification were carried out by standard mycobacteriological procedures, essentially as described elsewhere. Drug susceptibility testing against first and second-line anti-tB drugs was performed using the 1% proportion method on Löwenstein–jensen (Lj) medium and molecular tests (Genotype MtBDR, Hain). All isolates were characterized by spoligotyping with a commercially available kit (Isogen Bioscience Bv, Maarssen, the Netherlands). Results: thirty two of spoligopatterns were identified. of the 81 isolates, 55 (68%) were located in 6 clusters of which the largest – Beijing - accounted 36 (44%) isolates. Among non-Beijing clusters we found St53 (7 isolates/9%), St891 (5/6%), St65 (3/4%), St877 (2/2.5%) and St39 (2/2.5%). the remaining 26 (32%) isolates did not show clustering. In population with Beijing tB we observed 8 (10%) patients with xDR 54 and 14 (17%) with pre-xDR tB. Conclusions: Spoligotyping of 81 MDR-tB isolates revealed a high number (44%) of Beijing genotype strains among MDR patients in Poland. the specific reason for the high prevalence of this genotype is unknown, but explanations include more recent transmission of Beijing MDR strains and higher virulence of these isolates. This observation suggests that all MDR strains in Poland should be analyzed by spoligotyping – to control spread of Beijing tB. P113 MOLECuLAR INVESTIGATION OF MuTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITh RIFAMPICIN AND ISONIAZID RESISTANCE IN CLINICAL ISOLATES OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx IN MODENA, ITALY Giulia Fregni Serpini1, Sara Tagliazucchi1, Francesca Frascaro1, Antonella Grottola1, Nadia Nanni1, Giulia Forbicini1, Rita Magnani1, William Gennari1, Anna Fabio1, Fabio Rumpianesi1, Monica Pecorari1 1 Microbiology and Virology unit, university Hospital Policlinico of Modena, italy tuberculosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, as well as in developing countries, even in industrialized countries. Furthermore, the emergence of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtBC) strains is considered a real threat to achieving tuberculosis control. The aim of this study is to investigate the gene mutations conferring resistance to rifampicin (RIF) and to isoniazid (INH) in MtBC strains isolated in Modena since 2007 to 2014. Phenotypic drug susceptibility test (DSt) detected 56 resistant strains (15 were MDR and 41 were resistant to isoniazid) and 56 susceptible strains. We analyzed all 112 strains with the Genotype MtBDRplus kit and by sequencing to detect mutations conferring resistance to RIF (rpoB gene) and INH (katG gene, inhA gene and inhA promoter). The results of 56 phenotypic DST susceptible strains were confirmed by both molecular methods while, for the 56 resistant strains, only 50 were confirmed as resistant to both molecular methods. Among the 41 isolates resistant to INH, the most frequent mutation detected by the Genotype MtBDRplus and by sequencing were S315t in katG gene (56%) followed by -C15T in inhA promoter (34%). In addition, a rare mutation -G102A in inhA promoter in 1 strain and the katG polymorphism R463L in 17 strains (alone or in association with S315t) were detected by sequencing. MtBDRplus found the lack of the rpoB WT7 probe in 2 out of 41 INH resistant strains indicating the RIF resistance; this result was confirmed by sequencing showing the rpoB H526L mutation. Moreover, in 1 of these 2 strains the rare mutations rpoB S469L and inhA S94A/v78A were found by sequencing. Six of 41 isolates phenotypically resistant to INH appeared to be Wt with both molecular methods. out of 15 MDR strains, the most common mutations detected by both molecular methods in inhA promoter and in katG gene were respectively -C15t (26,6%) and S315t (93,3%) while in rpoB gene the most frequent mutation was S531L (93,3%) followed by the D516v (13,3%). the sequencing showed the katG polymorphism R463L associated with the katG S315T mutation in 4 strains; another MDR strain without katG detected mutation by MtBDRplus showed in katG gene the polymorphism R463L and the rare mutation E289G described elsewhere in a resistant strain. In 1 strain, the molecular kit highlighted, in addition to S531L, the rpoB H526D mutation not found by sequencing. We can conclude that the occurrence of mutations found in the study is in agreement with literature data. the sequencing has highlighted rare mutations in resistant strains: rpoB S469L never described in the literature to our knowledge, inhA S94A/v78A and katG E289G independently detected by other authors. P114 COMPLETE GENOME SEquENCE OF ThE MuLTIDRuG-RESISTANT BEIjING-LIkE STRAIN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS 323 uSING ThE PacBio REAL-TIME SEquENCING PLATFORM juan Germán Rodríguez1, Camilo Pino2, Andreas Tauch3, Martha I Murcia1 1 Grupo Micobac-un, Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Medicina, universidad Nacional de colombia 2 Grupo biolisi, Facultad de ingeniería, universidad Nacional de colombia, sede bogotá 3 institut für Genomforschung und systembiologie, centrum Für biotechnology (cebitec), universität bielefeld Strains of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing lineage have become successful pathogens worldwide due to their capacity to spread in a population. In some cases these strains have been associated with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis outbreaks. In Colombia, the Beijing lineage was reported since 1998 and recent evidence suggests that strains of this lineage have an increased incidence and are associated with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis outbreaks. We therefore sequenced the complete genome of a M. tuberculosis Beijing-like strain with the internal nomenclature “isolate 323” to gain insights into its genetic characteristics. The spoligotyping method was used to confirm the assignment of isolate 323 to the Beijing-like lineage of M. tuberculosis. It was classified as Spoligotype International type SIt190. Genomic DNA was extracted from isolate 323 following the CEtAB method. the DNA was sequenced using the PacBio RS II sequencer. the hierarchical genome assembly process from the Pacific Biosciences SMRt analysis tool-kit was used to obtain a de novo assembly. The results showed an assembly with a single contig and a sequence length of 4,411,216 bp with an average depth of coverage of 298.65 ×. The N50 contig length was 8,627 bp and the mean read length was 5,971 bp. the assembled sequence was annotated using the GenDB annotation system for prokaryotic genomes. the genome sequence has a mean G+C content of 65.6%, 4,237 protein-coding regions, 45 tRNA genes, and 3 rRNA genes. taking the genome of M. tuberculosis H37Rv as a reference sequence, the assembly has an identity of 99.88%, with 3,507 total variants, comprising 2,143 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), 207 multiple nucleotide polymorphisms, 588 insertions, and 569 deletions. Among the SNPs 1787 were detected in coding regions, of which 743 are synonymous, 1,026 missense and 18 nonsense substitutions. SNPs known to confer resistance to rifampin (S450L in rpob), isoniazid (S315t, R463L in katG and D229G in accD6), ethambutol (M306v in embb), pyrazinamide (T142A in pnca), and streptomycin (K43R in rpsL, E92D in gidb) were observed and confirm the multidrug-resistant phenotype of isolate 323. Moreover, a novel mutation was observed in the embC gene (del C2972bp) coding for ethambutol resistance. Regarding second-line antituberculous drugs, a known mutation in the gyra gene (D94G) and the novel mutations E21q and D668G were detected. SNPs known to confer resistant to amikacin/ kanamycin/capreomycin (A1401G in rrs) and a novel mutation in the eis gene (del CA804bp) were observed, suggesting that this strain is extensively drug-resistant. this is the first report of whole-genome sequencing of a multidrug-resistant M. tuberculosis Beijing-like isolate circulating in Colombia and we demonstrate that the PacBio sequencing technology is a reliable method for generating finished microbial genomes of M. tuberculosis isolates. P129 POPuLATION STRuCTuRE OF MuLTIDRuGRESISTANT MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS ISOLATES Claudia Llerena Polo1, Martha I Murcia2, juan Germán Rodríguez2, julio Guerra2 1 instituto Nacional de salud 2 Grupo Micobac-un, Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Medicina, universidad Nacional de colombia Introduction and objective: In Colombia the prevalence of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDRtB), has slowly but constantly increased since 2001. Each year there are about one hundred cases of MDRtB, and 250 cases of drug-resistant tB (resistance to any drug). Most of these cases are diagnosed in Antioquia and valle del Cauca departments. the Colombian National Institute of Health confirmed 36 55 xDR-tB. the objective of this study was determined the population structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains in a cohort of MDR-tB Colombian patients. Methods: A total of 201 MDR Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains from patients isolated during 2012 – 2013, in 24/33 departments of Colombia, were studied. Resistance profiles were confirmed using BACtEC-MGIt 960 and all strains were studied by second line susceptibility by the same method. The strains are being genotyped by spoligotyping. Results: of the 201 tB patients, 165(82%) were previously-untreated second line anti-TB drugs and the remaining 36(18%) were previously-treated cases, 7(3,4%) of them were xDR-tB. the various spoligotyping-based genotypic lineages isolates were: Latin American & Mediterranean (LAM) n = 73(36,3%); Haarlem, n = 54(26,9%); ill-defined t group, n =29(14,4%); Beijing, n =22(10,9%); u family, n=11(5,5%); S, n =5(2,5%) and x clade, n = 5(2,5%). The lineage distribution of M. tuberculosis showed that more than strains in Colombia are commonly found in Latin America. Conclusion: the most frequely linages founded in MDR-tB in Colombia‘s strains belong to LAM, Haarlem and Beijing linages. Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Population structure, Spoligotyping, MDR-tB, Colombia. P156 GENOTYPING AuTOMATIZATION: PRELIMINARY RESuLTS ON FIRST AND SECOND-LINE DRuG RESISTANCE DETECTION IN M. TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx harrison Magdinier Gomes1, Bernice klotoe2, Barbara Molina3, jose Dominguez3, Ali Sajid4, Maria helena Feres Saad5, Michel kiréopori Gomgnimbou6, Christophe Sola2 1 institut de biologie intégrative de la cellule, France; laboratory of Molecular biology Applied to Mycobacteria, oswaldo cruz Foundation, rio de Janeiro 2 institut de biologie intégrative de la cellule 3 servei de Microbiologia, Hospital universitari Germans trias i Pujol 4 Quaid-i-Azam university 5 institute oswaldo cruz Foundation 6 université Paris-sud-cnrs, institut de Génétique et Microbiologie, the infection, Genetics, emerging Pathogens (igepe) team, orsay, France; centre Muraz, bobo Dioulasso, burkina Faso MDR-tuberculosis remains an important threat. Proportion method is precise and widely used to detect MDR-tB however results can be obtained at best in 12 days when using Liquid culture. Innovative methods based on genetics are needed. 56 Gomgnimbou et al. described “TB-SPRINT” an highthroughput microbead-based method that detects rpoB, katG, inhA mutations related to resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid respectively and that produce a spoligotype pattern. We developed a secondgeneration assay to detect mutations in the embB, gyra, eis, rrs genes related to drug resistance to ethambutol, fluoroquinolones, kanamycin respectively constituting a total of 18 probes (TB-SPRINT ultra). to reduce laboratory costs, the goal of this new study was to perform automatization of coupling and hybridization. three basic steps: beads coupling, mix building, PCR, hybridization/reading, are routinely performed manually. We used a semiautomated process, using two robots: Andrew (AndrewalliancetM Geneva, Switzerland) (for coupling) and PipetMax® (Gilson France, villiers le Bel ) for hybridization. Andrew is a mobile anthropomorphic. PipetMax is a mixed (mono and multi-channel) pipetting platform from Gilson. Detection/Reading was done on a Luminex 200 (Luminex Corp, Austin, texas). 222 M. tuberculosis samples, (124 from Brazil and 98 from Pakistan), were tested for first and second line drug-resistance mutations. The results show that the robots performed with the same quality of results as obtained manually, even though in both automated systems, we observed loss of microbeads. These promising results lead us to look in the future for solutions with higher levels of automatization. use of magnetic microbeads and MagPix® could also improve bead-assay efficiency. Small reagent production batches for local MDR-tB diagnostic, mutation analysis, and epidemiological studies, using a “personalized and decentralized” molecular diagnostics model could be pioneered in the future. P175 PhENOTYPIC FLuOROquINOLONE SuSCEPTIBILITY TESTING IN M. TuBERCuLOSIS COMPARING REMA, MGIT 960 AND SOLID MEDIuM Nele Coeck1, Bouke de jong1, Leen Rigouts2 1 institute of tropical Medicine, Department of biomedical science, Mycobacteriology unit, university of Antwerp, belgium 2 institute of tropical Medicine, Faculty of Pharmaceutical, biomedical and Veterinary sciences, univeristy of Antwerp, belgium While the fourth generation of fluoroquinolones (Fqs) has shown greater effectiveness for treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-tB) compared to the older Fqs, the level of in vitro cross-resistance between the Fqs using different drug susceptibility testing formats, remains under-documented. therefore, we investigated cross-resistance between various generations of Fqs, by comparing MIC determination for ofloxacin (ofx), levofloxacin (Lvx), moxifloxacin (Mfx), and gatifloxacin (Gfx) in REMA and on Lj medium (as the golden standard), with ofx susceptibility testing in the Bactec MGIt 960 system, in addition to DNA sequencing of the gyra and gyrb genes. A total of 93 M. tuberculosis isolates were included, comprising 72 previously identified as ofx-resistant and 21 ofx-susceptible on Middlebrook 7H11 (proportion method, cut-off 2 µg/ml), as per routine testing. For all media, a cut-off of 2 µg/ml for ofx, 1 µg/ml for Lvx, and 0,5 µg/ml for Mfx and Gfx was applied. Among the ofx-resistant isolates on Lj, 98%, 96% and 87% were found cross-resistant to Lvx, Mfx and Gfx respectively. Around 62% of the isolates with elevated MICs for ofx, Lvx, Mfx and Gfx on Lj showed one or more high-confidence mutation, with 94Gly and 90val as the most common ones. Remarkably, 33% of the isolates showing an ofx MICs of >2 µg/ml on LJ harboured no gyra and gyrb mutations. In REMA, only 48%, 49%, 33% and 9% of the ofxresistant isolates on Lj showed resistance to ofx, Lvx, Mfx and Gfx respectively. Among the ofx-resistant isolates with high-confidence mutations, we achieved a ofx sensitivity rate of 56% in REMA and 94% in MGIt 960. Lowering the cut-off for ofx towards 1 µg/ ml in REMA increased the sensitivity towards 94%. In conclusion, these data confirm cross-resistance between the various Fqs, although new generations of Fqs had systematically lower MICs. In addition, the high rate of probable false-susceptible results in REMA suggests the need for lowering the current applied cut-offs of Fqs in REMA, however a more extensive validation experiment is warranted. Remarkably, a high proportion of Fq-resistant isolates harboured wild-type gyra and gyb genes which could be attributed to undetected heteroresistance or the involvement of alternative resistance mechanisms, such as efflux pumps. P191 PhENOTYPIC AND GENOTYPIC INVESTIGATION OF MuLTIDRuG RESISTANCE (MDR) AND ExTENSIVELY DRuG RESISTANCE (xDR) IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS STRAINS ISOLATED FROM CLINICAL SAMPLES IN CukuROVA REGION, TuRkIYE Togrul Nagiyev1, Emel Yarar1, Begum kayar2, Farhad kohansal1, Gulfer Yakici1, Taylan Bozok1, Fatih koksal1 1 Department of Medical Microbiology, Medical Faculty, cukurova university, Adana, turkey 2 tropical Disease research and Application center, cukurova university, Adana, turkey occurence of the Extensively Drug-Resistant (xDR) strains by improving resistance to second-line antituberculosis (anti-tB) drugs of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtBC) strains brings about one of the most important human health threats. We aimed to determine the first- and second-line anti-TB drug resistance patterns of MtBC strains isolated from Cukurova region, turkiye by phenotypic and genotypic methods. A total of 703 MtBC isolates obtained from 414 tBsuspected patients from 19 hospitals/dispensaries in Cukurova region throughout 2012 were enrolled in the study. First- and second-line anti-tB drug resistance patterns of the isolates were phenotypically determined by BACtEC MGIt 960 automated system and Lowenstein Jensen agar proportion susceptibility methods, respectively. Genotypic verification of the presence of MtBC and the MDR/pre-xDR/xDR was performed on cultures of MDR-tB isolates by multiplex Real-Time PCR assay using the novel Anyplex™ II MtB/MDR/xDR Detection kit (Seegene). Resistance to at least one first-line anti-tB drug and MDR pattern were phenotypically determined in 193 (27.5%) and 47 (6.7%) of the MtBC isolates belonging to 112 (27.1%) and 21 (5.1%) patients, respectively. All of the 47 MDR-MtBC isolates were verified as MtBC however 37 (78.7%) of them verified as MDR-MtBC by Real-time PCR testing. thus sensitivity and specifity of the Real-time PCR assay in MDR detection was 78.7% and 100%, respectively comparing with phenotypic methods. two pre-xDR strains, one fluoroquinolone- and one injectable drug-resistant isolates were detected, however xDRMtBC was not detected with both of phenotypical and genotypical methods. It was observed that results of the phenotypic and genotypic investigations were very consistent, In conclusion, it was suggested that the new multiplex Real-Time PCR assay is usable and reliable method for detection of MtBk, MDR and xDR in several hours. key Words: Agar proportion susceptibility method, BACtEC MGIt 960, Extensively Drug Resistance (xDR), Multidrug Resistance (MDR), M.tuberculosis complex (MtBC), Real-time PCR. P192 INVESTIGATION OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ChARACTERISTICS AND MOLECuLAR MEChANISMS OF MOxIFLOxACIN RESISTANCE IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS STRAINS ISOLATED FROM PuLMONARY TuBERCuLOSIS PATIENTS Taylan Bozok1, Begum kayar2, Gulfer Yakici1, Mahdi Marzi1, Togrul Nagiyev1, Emel Yarar1, Firat karsli1, Fatih koksal1 1 Department of Medical Microbiology, Medical Faculty, cukurova university, Adana, turkey 2 tropical Disease research and Application center, cukurova university, Adana, turkey 57 Objective: In this study, it is aimed to determine the moxifloxacin sensitivities of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated in our region and to specify the regional resistance rates besides to investigate the relation of phenotypical resistance with mutations in gyra gene. Materials and Method: Sequential 100 isolates that are seen to be non-multi drug resistant and 37 isolates that are determined as multidrug resistant among Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from pulmonary tuberculosis patient’s samples which sent to Region Tuberculosis Laboratory of Adana were included in this study. Drug sensitivity rates and DNA Sequencing of gyra region of these isolates are compared again. Findings: Resistance to moxifloxacin is found in 25 of 137 (18,2 %) isolates of which phenotypic susceptibilities were tested. Resistance rates among strains which seen to have multidrug resistance and those which have not multidrug resistance were 17 % and 21,6 % respectively. Looking at the distribution according to regions which sent 25 clinical isolates; it is determined that 10 of isolates were belonged to Adana, 6 to Gaziantep, 5 to Hatay, 3 to Mersin and 1 to kahramanmaraş province. Among all isolates included in study, Single bases mutation was encountered in 6 samples in total according to DNA sequencing result of gyra region. The positions of mutations were identified as Asp94tyr, Asp94Gly, Ala90val, Gly88Ala and in 2 samples as Asp89Asn. Two of the samples which mutation is seen were found to be sensitive to moxifloxacin phenotypically. Result: At the end of our study it is determined that, resistance developed to moxifloxacin would not be secondary in the treatment of tuberculosis. It is seen that different molecular mechanisms will be responsible from high resistance and the relation between resistance and mutations in the analysed gene is insufficient. It is concluded that research on moxifloxacin resistance should be continue with wider case groups and isolates also it will be important to persistently explain that there is a probability of resistance development in a short time to these group of drugs and it is required to use them more limited in non-spesific indications. keywords: gyra, Moxifloxacin, Mutation, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Proportion. P193 FLuROquINOLONE hETERORESISTANCE Leen Rigouts1, Mirjam Schats2, Nele Coeck2, Bouke de jong2 1 institute of tropical Medicine, Faculty of Pharmaceutical, biomedical and Veterinary sciences, univeristy of Antwerp, belgium 2 institute of tropical Medicine, Department of biomedical science, Mycobacteriology unit, univeristy of Antwerp, belgium 58 While the phenomenon of heteroresistance is known to occur in clinical isolates and is not unique to the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics (Fqs), the limit of detection (LoD) using different phenotypic and genotypic assays, as well as the clinical relevance of heteroresistance remain poorly documented. In this study we explored the LoD to detect Fq heteroresistance in experimentally mixed Fq-resistant and Fq-susceptible M. tuberculosis strains by minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) determination of gatifloxacin, Genotype MtBDRsl, gyra Sanger sequencing and digital PCR. Starting from a 1 mg/ml bacterial suspension of a pan-susceptible M. tuberculosis strain (S; wildtype gyra; ItM 011738) and its in vitro selected Fq-resistant daughter strain (R; 94Gly mutant; ItM 130481), the following mixtures of the S- and R-strain were prepared (S/R): 0/100, 1/99, 5/95, 10/90, 20/80, 30/70, 40/60, 50/50 and 0/100. Mixture preparation was repeated 3 times on different days to generate biological triplicates. Each ‘fresh’ mixture was inoculated on Middlebrook 7H11 medium at 5 different concentrations (0,25 -0,51,0-2,0 and 4,0 µg/ml) of gatifloxacin, followed by incubation at 37°C at 5%Co2 for 4 weeks. In addition, 300 µl of each mixture was added to 400 µl 1*tE buffer, heat killed for 10 minutes at 100°C and stored at -20°C for molecular assays. the 100%-susceptible suspension had a gatifloxacin MIC < 0.25 µg/ml, the 1%-resistant suspension showed an MIC of 0.25 µg/ml, whereas all remaining heteroresistant mixtures yielded an MIC of 0.5 µg/ml . Among the molecular assays tested to date, MtBDRsl was the most sensitive, detecting a 5% resistant subpopulation, and Sanger sequencing identified 20% resistance. Results from deep sequencing and digital PCR are pending. to investigate the clinical relevance of Fq heteroresistance, we manually re-analysed chromatograms of pre-treatment isolates obtained from an MDR-tB cohort with documented gatifloxacin-based treatment outcome. Among 117 re-inspected sequences, 38 were confirmed as gyra mutant and 5 as mutant/wild type mixtures as detected by the standard software. Among the 74 initially identified as Wt, manual inspection clearly revealed double peaks - albeit below the detection limit of the software - in 4 isolates, whereas for 70 no indication of heteroresistance was observed, yielding a heteroresistance level of 7.7% (9/117). In ongoing analysis, these results are linked to MICs, treatment outcome, as well as digital PCR and deep sequencing data. P196 MuTATION ANALYSIS OF MYCOBACTERIAL RPOB GENES AND EVALuATING MICS FOR RIFAMPIN IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS STRAINS ISOLATED FROM SPuTuM SAMPLES OF PuLMONARY TuBERCuLOSIS PATIENTS Begum kayar1, Taylan Bozok2, Adnan Atilgan2, Fatih koksal2 1 tropical Disease research and Application center, cukurova university, Adana, turkey 2 Department of Medical Microbiology, Medical Faculty, cukurova university, Adana, turkey Resistance to rifampicin (RIF) cause a serious and significant threat to tuberculosis control. Control of drug resistant tuberculosis relies proper treatment of drug resistant cases and rapid diagnosis. Molecular characterization RIF-resistant M. tuberculosis clinical strains of different origins can generate information useful for developing rapid molecular diagnostic methods that are widely applicable. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular epidemiology of rifampicin resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated in Cukurova Region, Southern Turkey. We evaluated the mutations in a 329 base pairs located in 481-589 codons of the rpoB gene by automated sequencing of 50 strains. In 50 rifampicin resistant strains, Mutations were identified in 98% strains. No mutation was detected in the (%2) 1 resistant strains. the most common mutation (51,02%) was Ser531Leu. overall, 15 different mutations affecting 12 codons were identified. the codon numbers of the most frequently encountered mutations were 531 (65,30%), 516 (10,20%), and 526 (6,1%). It was concluded that the results from this study can serve as a basis for monitoring molecular epidemiology of drug resistant M. tuberculosis strains isolated in our region. LJ proportions cultured. Study is ongoing. keywords: Drug resistance, Mycobacterium tuberculosis,rpoB gene, sequencing analyse, MIC values. P203 INCIDENCE OF DRuG RESISTANT TuBERCuLOSIS IN RuRAL hAITI: A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS R. justin May1, Md. Siddiqur Rahman khan1, Madsen Beau de Rochars1, Michael Lauzardo1 1 university of Florida Incidence rates of tuberculosis (tB) in Haiti are comparable to those in East Africa. In 2010, WHo estimated the prevalence of all forms of active tuberculosis in Haiti to be 314/100,000. While resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs has not been monitored systematically in Haiti, the WHo has estimated multi-drug resistance rates of approximately 2.1% in newly diagnosed patients and 12% in persons who have previously been treated for TB. A more recent study put the incidence rate in Port-au-Prince at 2.9% among newly diagnosed patients. there is a great need to better understand the extent of drug resistant TB in the rural areas of Haiti. Methods: Sputum specimens were obtained from 513 patients in a convenience sample with confirmed or suspected pulmonary TB. All specimens were stained for acid fast bacilli and cultures were performed using liquid and solid media. Drug susceptibilities were performed using MGIt, solid media, and genexpert (Cepheid). Results: A total of 606 samples were processed from 513 patients. Ninety (14.8%) of these samples were smear positive. Mycobacteria were detected in 116 of these samples of which 106 (91.4%) were identified as MtB. these were further tested for resistance to INH and Rif, and 30 (28.3%) of which were confirmed resistant to at least one of the two drugs and 10 (9.4%) were MDR. Limitations: Liquid media was unavailable to our laboratory for several months during the study period. Had we had access to a better supply of liquid media, our recovery could be significantly higher. Even though our laboratory is capable of molecular tests such as Hain and Cepheid, a reliable and practical solution for getting the reagents into the country has not been solidified. the samples were obtained from a convenience sample of patients presenting for care at a clinic providing medical services. Conclusion: It is clear that there is a significant and possibly worsening MDRtB epidemic in Haiti as the incidence in our rural sample is three times what has been recently found in an urban setting. A more deliberate analysis of the true incidence of drug resistance is needed to better guide programmatic interventions. P214 ROLE OF PuTATIVE EFFLux GENE Rv0194 IN DRuG RESISTANCE IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS Anshika Narang1, Astha Giri1, Mridula Bose1, Mandira Varma-Basil1 1 Dept. of Microbiology, Vallabhbhai Patel chest institute, university of Delhi Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the most successful pathogens worldwide. Treatment of tuberculosis (tB) has become very difficult because of the emergence of multiple drug resistant strains. Resistance to anti-TB drugs has mainly been attributed to spontaneous mutations. However, a proportion of drug resistant isolates have been observed without characteristic mutations. The 59 lack of information on drug resistance in these isolates has led to the possibilities of existence of alternative mechanisms of drug resistance such as drug efflux pumps in M. tuberculosis. We investigated the role of a putative efflux pump gene Rv0194, a member of ABC transporter family in conferring drug resistance to isolates of M. tuberculosis obtained from patients of pulmonary tuberculosis. the study was performed on six Rifampicin (RIF) susceptible and four Multidrug resistant (MDR) clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis. Isolates were exposed to subinhibitory concentrations of RIF followed by Real Time Analysis using housekeeping genes siga and rrs as normalizers. Both drug susceptible (n=2) and MDR (n=3) clinical isolates showed upregulation in the expression of Rv0194 in comparison with siga and rrs. Additional 2 drug susceptible isolates and H37Rv showed upregulation only in comparison with siga. Cloning and overexpression of Rv0194 in H37Rv did not reveal any change in Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of RIF. Sequencing of the RIF resistance determining region (RRDR) of the isolates showed the presence of mutations at codon 511 in one MDR isolate and codon 531 in two MDR isolates. The drug susceptible isolates lacked mutations in this region. Interestingly, one of the drug susceptible isolate overexpressing Rv0194 in comparison with both siga and rrs was found to be low level resistant when its MIC was performed by Microplate Alamar Blue Assay, even though no mutation was found in its RRDR. Our results suggest that Rv0194 though not directly involved in drug resistance in M. tuberculosis may be upregulated as an initial response to drug stress. P215 DRuG-RESISTANT TuBERCuLOSIS IN CROATIA, 2010-2014 Mihaela Obrovac1, Ljiljana Zmak1, Vera katalinicjankovic1 1 croatian National institute of Public Health Mycobacterium tuberculosis still represents a serious cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. tuberculosis (tB) caused by resistant M. tuberculosis strains poses additional threat as it requires prolonged and costly treatment with higher mortality rates then tB caused by sensitive strains. In Croatia today, there are approximately 500 TB patients per year and drug sensitivity testing is performed for all bacteriologically positive patients. Although the percentage of resistant tB is low, it is important to detect and follow these patients. The aim of this study was to determine resistance patterns and genetic lineages of resistant M. tuberculosis strains circulating in Croatia during a five year period, between 2010 and 2014. Among 2384 bacteriologically confirmed patients, a total of 88 (3.69%) resistant M. tuberculosis strains (1 strain per tB patient) were identified. All isolates were genotyped 60 using 15-locus mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units – variable number of tandem repeats (MIRuvNtR) analysis. M. tuberculosis global lineages were determined by comparison with MIRu-vNtRplus on line tool. Isoniazid and rifampicin resistance conferring mutations were determined using GenoType MtBDRplus assay (Hain, Germany). the majority of tested isolates (75%) belonged to the Euro-American global lineage. The most prevalent sub-lineages were Haarlem (60.22%), followed by uganda I&II (6.82%) and Latin American – Mediterranean (3.41%). the most common resistance pattern was monoresistance (80.68%), to streptomycin, isoniazid and rifampicin (30.68%, 48.86% and 1.14%, respectively). Multiresistant pattern was identified in six (6.82%) cases. In 10 (11.36%) cases there was isoniazid and streptomycin resistance and in one (1.14%) case there was resistance to streptomycin and ethambutol. Among 59 isoniazid resistant strains, a total of 22 had resistance conferring mutation in katG gene (S315t), 23 in inha promoter region (C-15t) and 14 had none of these mutations. In multiresistant strains, the most prevalent rifampicin resistance conferring mutation was S531L (in five cases), and in one case there was a mutation in codones 526-529 (ΔWt7). In conclusion, in Croatia there is a low number of patients with resistant strains, but relatively high number of strains with monoresistance, especially to isoniazid. these patients have to be monitored with caution, as there is a possibility of developing resistance to rifampicin and becoming multiresistant. ENVIRONMENTAL MYCOBACTERIA P39 P44 IN VITRO ACTIVITIES OF EDP-420 AND EDP322 AGAINST SEVERAL NONTuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA Carolyn Shoen1, Mary Sklaney1, Michael Cynamon1 1 Vamc, suny upstate Medical university, syracuse, New york, united states RNA AND PROTEIN INTERACTING PARTNERS OF MYCOBACTERIuM SMEGMATIS RNAP Jiří Pospíšil1, jarmila hnilicová1, Martina janoušková1, Libor krásný1 1 institute of Microbiology, Academy of sciences of the czech republic EDP-322 and EDP-420 are bicyclolides (bridged bicyclic macrolides). EDP-420 previously was found to have promising in vitro and in vivo activity against M. avium complex (MAC). the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the comparative in vitro activities of EDP-322, EDP-420 and clarithromycin against M. abscessus (MA), MAC, and M. kansasii (Mk). EDP-322, EDP-420, clarithromycin (CLA), and amikacin (AMk) were obtained from Enanta Pharmaceuticals (Watertown, MA), Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, IL), and Bristol-MyersSquibb Co. (Princeton, Nj) respectively. these compounds were dissolved in DMSo at 5 mg/ml prior to freezing at -200C. The compounds were serially diluted in 50µl of Middlebrook 7H10 broth (pH 6.6 [7H10 agar formulation with agar and malachite green omitted]) supplemented with Middlebrook oleic acidalbumin-dextrose-catalase enrichment and 0.05% tween 80 (MAC), 7H9 broth (Mk), or Mueller Hinton broth (MA) in polystyrene 96-well round-bottom microtitre plates. to each well, 50µl of the appropriate mycobacterial suspension was added to yield a final concentration of about 1 x 105 CFu/ml. Plates were incubated at 370 C in ambient air for 7 days (MAC and Mk) or 5 days (MA) prior to reading. the MIC50/MIC90 (µg/ml) of EDP-322, EDP-420, and CLA against Mk isolates (N=22) were 4/8, 1/2, and 0.125/0.125 respectively. the MIC50/MIC90 of EDP322, EDP-420, CLA, and AMk against MA isolates were 8/64, 2/64, 1/32, and 2/4 respectively. the MICs (µg/ml) for EDP-322, EDP-420 and CLA against macrolide naïve MAC isolates (N=13) were <32, ≤4 and ≤2 respectively. For macrolide experienced isolates (N=10) with CLA MICs >64 µg/ ml (except for one isolate with an MIC of 64) the EDP322 and EDP-420 MICs were ≤64 µg/ml except for one isolate which had an MIC >64 µg/ml. Evaluation of EDP-322 and EDP-420 in murine models of mycobacterial infection would better define the potential role of these agents as therapeutics for mycobacterial infections in humans. RNA polymerase (RNAP) is the central enzyme of transcription. Mycobacterium smegmatis RNAP is composed of core subunits (α2ββ´ω1ω2) and a specific sigma factor that recognizes the promoter sequence and allows transcription initiation. RNAP carries out the polymerization function and its activity is regulated by various auxiliary factors. These factors can be both proteins or small RNAs. Here, we will describe a newly discovered sRNA, termed Ms1 that interacts with RNAP core in stationary phase. Further, we will present quantification of protein interaction partners of mycobacterial RNAP by mass spectrometry from exponential and stationary phase. thus, this project contributes to our understanding of the transcription machinery in mycobacteria, a medicinally important group of bacteria. P46 GENE AND GENOME ANALYSIS INDICATES ThAT ThE STRAIN jS623 IS WRONGLY CONSIDERED A MEMBER OF ThE SPECIES MYCOBACTERIuM SMEGMATIS Maria jesus Garcia1, S. Gola2 1 Facultad de Medicina, universidad Autónoma de Madrid, spain 2 centro Nacional de biotecnologia (cnb), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas During a study on the application of whole genome sequence comparisons to differentiate mycobacterial species, unexpected differences were found between the genome of strain JS623 and the genome of strain mc2155, both considered members of the species Mycobacterium smegmatis. Both are among the few strains of that species having a complete genome sequence available in the data-bases. Aiming to clarify the memberships of both strains to that species, we performed a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic analysis of jS623, mc2155 and other members of the genus. Single and concatenated gene trees, including the sequences of the M. smegmatis type strain, showed that only strain mc2155 and another, different, 61 strain (MkD8) clustered with the type strain. the molecular phylogenetic analyses suggest that strain JS623 is a mycobacterium more related to Mycobacterium moriokaense than to M. smegmatis, and indicate that it is not a member of this last species, as was previously believed. Moreover, according to the standard values accepted for species delimitation, using three different whole genome sequence procedures of comparisons, the parameters of JS623 clearly separate this strain from the other two strains of M. smegmatis. Percentages of digital DNA-DNA hybridization were 20.3%; Average Nucleotide Identity 81.8%, and gene rearrangements was higher than 94%. All these values indicate a separation of JS623 from the other M. smegmatis strains at the genome level. To avoid future confusions as well as misleading conclusions, the strain jS623 should be corrected as Mycobacterium sp. not only in the literature but, even more importantly, in the database entries. our results underline the strength of genome comparisons to identify erroneously classified genome entries. Acknowledgements: We wish to thank M. Pavelka for helpful comments on the history of the MkD8 strain and N.S. osório for the communication of unpublished results on LldD. Funding resources: International Cooperation CEALuAM and the Spanish Ministry of Health (AES, PI1301218). P86 NEW GENOME SEquENCE OF A MAP ShEEP STRAIN: jIII-386 FROM GERMANY // ANNOTATION AND COMPARISON WITh PuBLIShED MAP-S AND MAP-C STRAINS Petra Möbius1, Martin hölzer2, Marius Felder3, Gabriele Nordsiek4, Marco Groth3, heike köhler1, katrin Reichwald3, Matthias Platzer3, Manja Marz2 1 institute of Molecular Pathogenesis, Nrl for Paratuberculosis, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut 2 rna bioinformatics and High throughput Analysis, Faculty of Mathematics and computer science, Friedrich-schiller-university 3 leibnitz institute for Age research, Fritz lipmann institute 4 Department of Genome Analysis, Helmholtz centre for infection research Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) - the etiologic agent of paratuberculosis affects cattle, sheep and other ruminants. MAP was detected in environmental samples, in raw milk and isolated from man. the etiologic role of MAP in human Crohn’s disease is under discussion. Deciphering of phenotypic differences including virulence and host association observed between cattle and sheep strains (belonging to MAP-C and MAP-S) by comparative genome analysis needs data of isolates originating from different geographic regions of the world. 62 MAP sheep strain jIII-386 (MAP-S) from a migrating herd in Germany was subjected to whole-genome shotgun sequencing, de novo assembled, and annotated by BacProt. NcRNAs were annotated by homology search of Rfam families using the GORAP pipeline. Additionally, a newly finished sequence of cattle isolate jII-1961 from Germany, published MAP-C strains k10, MAP4 (both from u.S.), MAP-S draft genomes of strain S397 (from u.S.) and strain CLIj361 (from Australia), as well as M. a. subsp. hominissuis strain MAH104 were used for comparison and assembly improvement of JIII-386. All genomes were annotated by BacProt and results compared with NCBI annotation. With jIII-386, the so far best assembled type-I/III strain is presented here. Both approaches detected corresponding protein-coding sequences (CDSs), but also CDSs that were exclusively determined either by NCBI or BacProt. A new Shine-Dalgarno sequence motif was extracted, possibly conserved among Mycobacteria. Novel CDSs and about 80 ncRNAs and riboswitches were unveiled for MAP; numbers of ASpks, G1, ykkC-III differ among MAP-S and MAP-C. A high sequence conservation of all newly identified ncRNAs was observed. One or two CDSs encoding proteins of the PE-PGRS family were identified in MAP as well as in MAH104. Some previously described differences between genomes of MAP-S and C could be partially revised. Four out of ten putative MAP-S specific large sequence polymorphisms (LSPSs) are also present in MAP-C strains. Independent of regional origin, results of protein coding gene annotation and single nucleotide variant (SNv) analysis confirm the strong similarity of MAP-C strains, and show higher diversity among MAP-S strains. Sequences of two additional MAP strains and the use of two annotation programs unveiled new insights in MAP-type specific gene regions and will help to decipher genes responsible for different host association and virulence of MAP-S and MAP-C. P96 IN VITRO ACTIVITIES OF BEDAquILINE AGAINST NON-TuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA Diana Angelica Aguilar Ayala1, jorge Gonzalez y Merchand2, koen Andries3, Peter Vandamme1, juan Carlos Palomino1, Anandi Martin1 1 laboratory of Microbiology, Department of biochemistry and Microbiology, Ghent university, Gent 2 Departamento de Microbiologia, escuela Nacional de ciencias biologicas, instituto Politecnico Nacional, Mexico 3 Janssen infectious Diseases, beerse Background: Infections caused by NtM have become more frequent in the last years since NtM have emerged as important pathogens in immunecompromised patients. unfortunately, their treatment is long, toxic and often with poor results. Bedaquiline (tMC207) has been recently approved for the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and based on in vitro data showing promising activity against NtM, there is increasing interest in its potential use for treating NtM infections. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and the Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) of bedaquiline against 11 reference strains of rapid growing NtM (M. smegmatis, M. fortuitum, M. chelonae, M. phlei, M. flavescens, M. duvalii, M. cosmeticum, M. chitae, M. goodie, M. kumamotonense, M. mucogenicum). Methods: the MIC was determined by the broth dilution method using the resazurin microtiter assay (REMA) and the standard broth turbidity method (Muller Hinton). the MBC was determined by conventional plate agar dilution method. Results: In both assays, REMA and the Muller Hinton method, range concentration of bedaquiline was assessed from 0.003 to 2 µg/mL. the MIC of bedaquiline for 9 NtM ranged between 0.007 - 0.062 µg/ml. Additionally one strain had a MIC of 2 µg/ml and another a MIC > 2 µg/ml. the MBC for 9 NtM was found to be higher than 2 µg/ml for the majority of the strain tested. However, for M. fortuitum the MBC was 0.062 µg/ml and for M. cosmeticum the MBC was 0.015 µg/ml. Conclusion: Bedaquiline exhibited a strong inhibitory effect against the majority of the rapid growing NtM species tested (9/11) having MICs of ≤0.062 μg/ml. However, the MBC of bedaquiline against the majority of the species was found to be much higher than its MIC (> 2 µg/ml). An interesting finding was that 2 NtM species (M. flavescens and M. duvalii) had significantly higher MICs that might be considered naturally resistant to bedaquiline and are under investigation. These results warrant further investigation to assess the potential use of bedaquiline in treatment regimens customized for NtM infections. P120 IDENTIFICATION OF NON-TuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA CLINICAL ISOLATES BY TANDEM DNA SEquENCING AND MALDI-TOF MS PROTEIN ANALYSIS johana Monteserin1, Roxana Paul1, Margo Cnockaert2, Maria Belén Orandoni1, Beatriz Lopez1, Palomino juan Carlos2, Peter Vandamme2, Viviana Ritacco1, Anandi Martin2 1 instituto Nacional de enfermedades infecciosas Anlis “carlos G. Malbrán”, buenos Aires, Argentina 2 laboratory of Microbiology, Department of biochemistry and Microbiology, Ghent university, Gent, belgium Background: In our medium-resource reference laboratory in Argentina, the identification of non tuberculous mycobacteria (NtM) to the species level has relied for many years on phenotypic tests and PRA-hsp65 analysis. Out of about 130 clinical isolates identified as NtM each year, 25-30 do not attain definitive species assignation. Objective: To compare the DNA based methods using tandem sequencing of four gene loci and the recently implemented protein analysis using matrixassisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-toF MS) for accurate species identification of NtM clinical isolates that are difficult to differentiate using our laboratory diagnostic algorithm. Methods: We investigated a selection of 40 NtM clinical isolates obtained in 2002-2013 in Argentina, which were not identified to the species level and/ or represented iteratively ambiguous phenotypic/ PRA patterns. We performed 16SrRNA, hsp65, rpob and soda sequencing using an ABI Prism 3130 xL Genetic Analyzer. Analysis was performed with the Bionumerics software and BLAST in the NCBI database. MALDI-toF MS was performed according to the manufacturer’s protocol (Biotyper System, Bruker Daltonics) for protein extraction from Löwenstein–jensen slants and spectra were analyzed against the manufacturer’s database. Results: tandem DNA sequence analysis allowed consensus identification of 31/40 (77.5%) isolates to the species level. Sequencing failed in univocally assigning species to four isolates of the Mycobacterium terrae Complex, one of the Mycobacterium avium Complex, and four unclassified rapid growers. In pilot MALDI-toF MS protein analysis experiments, species identification was fully congruous with DNA sequencing for 18 out of the 20 isolates so far analyzed. Comments: Preliminary results show that tandem DNA sequencing analysis of the selected gene loci is useful to resolve species assignation of most difficult to identify NtM clinical isolates in our setting. Also, MALDI-toF MS protein analysis shows promise as a tool to identify clinically relevant NtM but needs further examination and the construction of customized NtM databases to maximize its accuracy. P121 MASTITIS IN COWS CAuSED BY MYCOBACTERIuM FORTuITuM – A NEW MOMENT IN DIAGNOSTICS AND TREATMENT Silvio Spicic1, Miroslav Benić Benić1, Gordan kompes1, Vera Katalinić-Janković2, Maja ZdelarTuk1, Irena Reil1, Sanja Duvnjak1, Mateja Pate1, Luka Cvetnić1, Željko Cvetnić1 1 croatian Veterinary institute, Zagreb 2 croatian National institute of Public Health, Zagreb 63 Mycobacterium (M.) fortuitum is recognized as the etiological agent of mastitis in cattle and is considered to be species the most commonly associated with mastitis among nontuberculous mycobacteria (NtM). The bacterium has also been isolated from raw-milk samples collected from bulk tanks and from milk samples from tuberculin test positive cows. During February and March 2015, bacteriological investigation targeting the causative agents of mastitis was carried out on samples from two older pregnant Simmental cows from two different herds. In both cases, the anamnestic data coincided: the mastitis was persistent and resistant to treatment with antimicrobials. In one case, the therapy was repeated several times using antimicrobials of different groups. Scarce clinical signs included positive reaction to mastitis test. The milk samples were inoculated onto esculin-blood agar plate. In both cases, the culture growth dynamics was identical: the first tiny dust-like colonies became visible after 48 hours of incubation at 37°C and reached a diameter of 1-2 mm after 72 hours. Gram-stained smear revealed blue bacilli while ziehl-Neelsen staining showed the presence of acid fast bacilli. The isolates were investigated using conventional PCR, Genotype Mycobacterium CM (Hain Lifescience) kit and biochemical tests. the latter identified both isolates as M. fortuitum while the GenoType assay results corresponded to M. fortuitum ii/M. mageritense hybridization pattern. the finding of udder infection with a rapidly growing NtM species shows an increasing importance of mycobacteria in milk production pathology. Each case of udder infections with the evidence of long-lasting treatment should be suspicious to NtM involvement, especially because of high antimicrobial resistance. P174 DECIPhERING ThE VIRuLENCE FACTORS OF ThE OPPORTuNISTIC PAThOGEN MYCOBACTERIuM COLOMBIENSE Monica Natalia Gonzalez Perez1, Martha I Murcia2, Carlos Parra-Lopez2, jochen Blom 3, Andreas Tauch 4 1 Microbiology Department, school of Medicine, National university of colombia, bogotá, colombia; Medical Microbiology and Genomics, institute for Genome research and systems biology, center for biotechnology (cebitec), bielefeld university, Germany 2 Microbiology Department, school of Medicine, National university of colombia, bogotá, colombia 3 bioinformatics and systems biology, Justus liebig university Giessen, Germany 4 Medical Microbiology and Genomics, institute for Genome research and systems biology, center for biotechnology (cebitec), bielefeld university, Germany 64 The genus Mycobacterium was identified over a century ago and comprises over 160 species that are ubiquitous in nature and include free-living saprophytes, opportunistic pathogens and pathogens of humans and animals. M. tuberculosis (Mtb) is considered one of the most dangerous human pathogens, however, there are a large number of species known as atypical or Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NtM) which include up to 150 species. Although they are not considered a public health problem, their importance is increasing due to the frequent association with immunosuppression, especially in HIv/AIDS patients, which is highly fatal. Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) contains clinically important NtM worldwide and is the second largest medical complex in the Mycobacterium genus after the Mtb complex. MAC is comprised of several species which are very close phylogeneticallyrelated, but they are very diverse regarding their host preference, course of disease, virulence and immune response. the reasons why these MAC members vary in diversity are not yet clear and the biology of pathogenic mycobacteria remains an enigma, despite their importance in human and veterinary medicine. In this proposal, we are attempting to find immunological and virulence-related insights in the M. colombiense genome as a model of an opportunistic pathogen in the MAC. For this study, the M. colombiense CECT 3035 genome was annotated using the GenDB platform. then, we used different bioinformatics tools to search for CRISPR systems (CRISPR Finder tool), prophage sequences (Phast tool), genomic islands (Island viewer and GIPSy tools),singletons (EDGAR), protein families (PathogenFinder),and mycobacterial virulence factors (vFDataBase).We did not find either CRISPR structures or prophages sequences in the M. colombiense genome. However, we detected a total of 45 islands, which contain a total of 420 genes, 70% of those codified for unknown proteins, and 34% are singletons. We detected a total of 452 singletons, which represent 8.4% of the M. colombiense genome. the majority of those (85%) contain Sec signal peptides and 22% are transmembrane proteins. We also detected one singleton with LPxtG motif that is indication of a cell wall localization. Finally, we detected the M. colombiense virulence factors that are involve in survival mechanisms inside the macrophage. We hypothesize that the presence of these singletons and virulence-associated genes in the M. colombiense CECT 3035 genome can serve as diagnostic indicators for opportunistic pathogenicity. Furthermore, they contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms used by pathogenic mycobacteria to cause disease, which can provide new insights into designing anti-mycobacterial intervention strategies. Additional comparative genomic and experimental analyses are necessary to extend this hypothesis. P189 DETERMINATION OF DISTRIBuTION AND ANTIBIOTIC SuSCEPTIBILITY OF NONTuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA (NTM) SPECIES IN CLINICAL SAMPLES FROM ThE CukuROVA REGION, TuRkIYE Togrul Nagiyev1, Farhad kohansal1, Emel Yarar1, Begum kayar2, Taylan Bozok1, Gulfer Yakici1, Fatih koksal1 1 Department of Medical Microbiology, cukurova university, Adana, turkey 2 tropical Disease research and Application center, cukurova university, Adana, turkey the known species in the population have been also monitored. key Words: Agar proportion susceptibility (APS) method, DNA sequence analysis, hsp65, nontuberculous mycobacteria (NtM). Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NtM) cause serious infections around the world, especially in immunosuppressed patients by direct transmission from the environment or after colonization. Difficulties in identification of these species from Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex may lead false diagnosis and treatments. In recent years, increased incidence of immunosuppressing diseases as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) have further increased the prevalence and importance of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NtM) infections. More than 140 NtM species have been reported, and at least 25 of them have been strongly associated with NtM diseases. the culturing and phenotypic identification of these bacteria at the species level is complex and time consuming. And reasons such as great similarity of the genetic structure and identification of novel species and subspecies highly limit molecular diagnosis as well. The hsp65 gene, which is present in all mycobacteria, is more variable than the 16S rRNa gene sequence and is therefore potentially useful for the identification of genetically related species. In the study, we aimed to determine distribution and antibiotic susceptibility of tDM species in the Cukurova region, turkiye. In this study, 96 NtM strains isolated from 21918 clinical materials of patients that have pulmoner tuberculosis and/or suspected contact from Adana and the neighboring provinces have been identified to species level by DNA sequence analysis method targeting the specific hsp65 gene region in the Cu TDRAC Regional Laboratory for Tuberculosis from November 2012 to September 2014. Antibiotic resistance paterns have been evaluated by Lowenstein Jensen - Agar Proportion tests. It was observed that the most prevalent NtM isolate was M. abscessus with ratio of 24,7% (23/93), and antimicrobial resistance were frequently emerged against Doxycycline and Moxifloxacin with same ratio of 17,2% (16/93), whereas lowest resistance rate was detected against Clarithromycin as % 5,4 (5/93). In conclusion, considering the great number of the examined samples, besides determining the distribution and antibiotic susceptibility of NtM species in the Çukurova region, turkiye, the movement of 65 GLOBAL PROSPECTIVE OF TB DIAGNOSTICS P16 P32 COMPARISON OF GENExPERT MTB ASSAY AND CONVENTIONAL CuLTuRE METhODS FOR ThE DIAGNOSIS OF TuBERCuLOSIS Ilhan Afsar1, Aslı Gamze Sener1, Selcuk kaya1 1 ikcu Ataturk training and research Hospital Objectives: Diagnosis of tuberculosis (tB) can be done in many ways. the Genexpert MtB/RIF test (Cepheid) is a closed-cartridge-based system that is easy to operate by minimally trained staff and gives results in approximately 2 h, for TB some of the century-old tests are still considered as a gold standard. The aim of this study was to determine sensitivity and specivity of the Genexpert MtB/RIF assay in the diagnosis of TB. Methods: In this study, respiratory and non respiratory samples studied during the clinical routine by Genexpert MtB/RIF method and conventional culture method in IkCu Ataturk training and research hospital laboratory of microbiology, Izmir, turkey, between january 2014 to March 2015 were investigated. Our conventional culture methods are Lowenstein-jensen culture tube method and MGIt 960 liquid medium system. Results: A total of 627 clinical specimens included in the study. of the 627 clinical specimens studied, 17 culture positive and 16 Genexpert MtB/RIF positive for M. tuberculosis. Four PCR negative specimens have detected while 17 culture positive and 3 culture negative specimens have detected while 16 PCR positive . Results were shown at the table. the sensitivity and specificity were 76.5% and 99.5%, respectively, (p<0.001). there is no difference respiratory and non-respiratory samples. Conclusions: Genexpert MtB/RIF can be used in laboratories as a fast and reliable test. Also Genexpert MtB can be recommended safely in non-respiratory samples. Table. Positive and negative results of culture and GenExpert MTb/RiF are shown Culture (+) Culture (-) 66 GenExpert MtB/ RIF (+) GenExpert MtB/ RIF (-) 13 4 3 610 EVALuATION OF SPEED-OLIGO DIRECT TB CASSETTE FOR DIRECT DETECTION OF M. TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx FROM SPuTuM SPECIMENS Abiy Aklilu1, Abenezer Feleke1, Chala Chaburte1, Boja Dufera1, Silvia Blanco1, Pablo Mendoza1 1 Addis Ababa university Objective: to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the new Speed oligo Direct tB Cassette, vicell, Spain (So-DMt)SPEED-oLIGo® Direct tB for the detection of M. tuberculosis on clinical samples, comparing the results with: smear examination, culture and Genexpert MtB/RIF(Cepheid) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Materials and methods: A total of 145 sputum samples were included in the evaluation of the SODMt. one sample per patient was decontaminated following NALC-NaOH method by Kubica. After decontamination, ziehl-Neelsen and culture were performed, and an aliquot was used for the evaluation. One hundred nine of the specimens were also tested by xpert MtB/RIF assay. the aliquot was stored at -20ºC. Results: taking culture as reference, the sensitivity and specificity of the So-DMt assay for the detection of MtBC were 96%, 97.8%, respectively. After resolution of discrepant results with culture and clinical data, the corresponding values were 96% (100% in smear-positives and 89.5% in smear-negatives) and 100%. the concordance between So-DMt assay results and culture was k: 0.92 (SE 0.0348), indicating excellent concordance. The sensitivity of both SODMt and xpert MtB/RIF assays was 94.8% (100% in smear-positives and 87.1% in smear-negatives). the specificity of So-DMt and xpert MtB/RIF assays were 100% and 93.8% (100% in smear-positives and 93% in smear-negatives), respectively. Conclusions: 1 So-DMt has a good sensitivity and specificity in smear-positive and smearnegative specimens. It’s use can avoid the need to wait for culture results. 2 So-DMt assay is simple, rapid and provides a good sensitivity for detection of the M. tuberculosis complex from decontaminated sputum samples. 3 This assay might be a good alternative to real-time PCR assays for laboratories not equipped with real-time PCR instruments. P65 COMPARISON OF RAPID MGIT TBC IDENTIFICATION TEST AND MYCOLIC ACID ANALYSIS BY hIGh PERFORMANCE LIquID ChROMATOGRAPhY FOR CONFIRMATION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx Ilhan Afsar1, Yusuf Saglam1, Erkan Yula1, Aslı Gamze Sener1, huseyin Baskin2, Selcuk kaya1 1 ikcu Ataturk training and research Hospital 2 school of Medicine, Dokuz eylul university Aim: A culture confirmation test for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains that uses a lateral-flow immunochromatographic assay to detect the MPB64 antigen, the MGIt tBc identification (tBc ID) test, has been developed. We evaluated the performance of 66 positive TBc ID test of the M. tuberculosis complex against mycolic acid analysis by Mycolic Acid Analysis by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HLPC) for identification of Mycobacterium complex. We compared these positive 66 TBc ID results to HLPC . Material and Method: Between January 2010 and june 2014, clinical samples from IkCu Ataturk training and Research Hospital were processed using the MGIt 960 system (BD Diagnostics, Sparks, MD) with standard protocols. Positive cultures were examined for acid-fast bacilli (AFB), and AFB-positive cultures were used to perform TBcID and HLPC analysis by using the Sherlock mycobacterial identification system according to manufacturers’ instructions. Results: During four years 66 clinical specimens were found positive by TBc ID test. Of the 66 TBc ID positive test, 63 of them were found positive by HLPC. In two of the three species identified M. mucogenicum and one type were determined as M. abscessus/chelonae by HLPC while identified as M. Tuberculosis complex by TBcID test. Sensitivity and specificity of the tBc ID test was found to be 95.5% and 100%, respectively Conclusion: the tBc ID test is an easy, very sensitive, and specific diagnostic tool. Considering that the BD MGIt tBc ID test is rapid, less laborintensive, and inexpensive, it could be useful test for in TB diagnostic laboratories. P66 RELATIONAL SEquENCING TB DATA PLATFORM (ReSeqTB): GLOBAL COLLABORATIVE EFFORT TO BuILD A CENTRALIZED RELATIONAL DATABASE FOR INVESTIGATING ThE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN M. TuBERCuLOSIS GENOTYPES AND DRuG RESISTANCE Paolo Miotto1, David Dolinger2, Timothy Rodwell2, Angela Starks3, Daniel johnson4, Marco Schito5, Matteo Zignol6, Stefan Niemann7, Daniela M. Cirillo1 emerging bacterial Pathogens unit, Division of immunology, transplantation and infectious Diseases, San Raffaele Scientific Institute 2 Foundation for innovative New Diagnostics (Find) 3 Division of tuberculosis elimination, National center for Hiv/Aids, Viral Hepatitis, std, and tb Prevention, centers for Disease control and Prevention 4 Division of Aids, National institute of Allergy and infectious Diseases, National institutes of Health 5 critical Path institute 6 Global tb Programme, tb Monitoring and evaluation, World Health organization 7 Molecular Mycobacteriology, research center borstel, German center for infection research, borstel, Germany 1 Rapid drug susceptibility tests (DSts) are needed to improve the management of tuberculosis (tB) patients, the rational use of the new tB drug regimens, and to better understand the global burden of drug-resistant TB. Having relevant genotypic and phenotypic information on M. tuberculosis (MtB) validated and made accessible in one place would support the development of new tests that can rapidly inform appropriate therapy for TB patients. A comprehensive, curated and easy-to-use database (DB) providing a one-stop data source of this scope does not currently exist and is a major barrier to the understanding of the relationship between genetic mutations and drug resistance (DR) in MtB. A global partnership of academic institutions, public health agencies, and non-governmental organizations has been established to develop a Relational Sequencing tB Data Platform (ReSeqtB), aimed at understanding the genetic basis of phenotypic DR by correlating mutation data with phenotypic DST and associated patient outcomes ensuring quality and security of information, high legal and intellectual property standards, and patient data privacy. A systematic review of literature for MtB datasets has been carried out to identify: (i) DBs with DRassociated mutations, (ii) surveillance datasets, (iii) next generation sequencing (NGS) datasets, and (iv) genetic variation datasets. The review highlighted the existence of large collections of genotypic data (ranging from targeted to whole-genome sequencing) for more than 50,000 clinical MtB isolates across 70 countries worldwide; >60% of isolates having associated phenotypic DSt data (primarily for firstand/or second-line drugs). the analysis also revealed clinical data for more than 30,000 tB patients (mainly tB treatment history and/or clinical outcomes). these data are distributed across 368 studies (including 50 DB platforms and 18 web-tools/software). owners of these data identified through the literature search will be asked to contribute the datasets for initially populating the ReSeqtB DB. the inclusion of these and future NGS data in the ReSeqtB platform will support development of new diagnostics, provide a 67 validated and updated list of DR-associated mutations, facilitate clinical decision making, and improve global surveillance of tB. the ReSeqtB initiative offers an opportunity for a value-added global collaboration to achieve improved patient outcomes and to advance the efforts to control and ultimately eliminate TB. P79 COMPARISON OF TWO NEW TRANSCRIPTIONREVERSE TRANSCRIPTION CONCERTED REACTION METhODS (TRCR-160 M.TB and TRCR-80) FOR RAPID DETECTION OF M. TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx IN RESPIRATORY SPECIMENS Antonio Mazzarelli1, Maria Grazia Paglia1, Alessandro Piscini1, Ornella Butera1, Eugenio Bordi1, Silvia D’Arezzo1, Antonella Vulcano1, Carolina Venditti1, Carla Nisii1, Antonino Di Caro1 1 laboratory of Microbiology and bio-repository, National institute for infectious Diseases lazzaro spallanzani, rome, italy Introduction: The rapid and accurate diagnosis of M.tuberculosis complex (MtBC) infections are important for the optimal treatment and prevention of TB infections. Although culture remains the gold standard for the detection of tuberculosis infection, various molecular-based methods have been developed to speed up the diagnostic process. We have compared two transcription–Reverse transcription Concerted Reaction systems (tRCR) for their ability to rapidly detect M.tuberculosis complex in respiratory samples. Methods: 201 specimens were collected from patients treated at L.Spallanzani Hospital in Rome. Samples were analysed by two TRCR systems (TRCRapid-160 M.tB and tRCReady-80 M.tB, tosoh Bioscience, tokyo, japan), that use an oxazole yellow-linked DNA probe and isothermal RNA amplification to detect 16S rRNA. the tRCRapid-160 M.tB system is semi-automated and has been used in our routine activity, while the new tRCReady-80 offers a total automation of extraction, amplification and detection analysis. Acid-Fast bacilli (AFB) staining, solid and liquid medium culture were performed on all samples. Positive cultures were analysed using an “in-house” IS6110 MtBC nested-PCR, to confirm the identification of M.tuberculosis. For tRCRapid-160, the Extragen M.tB extraction kit was used, while the TRCReady-80 is an automated system employing a cartridge-type set of reagents for purification amplification and detection. Results: Identification results obtained by tRCR, AFB staining, culture and PCR were compared to highlight discrepancies and evaluate Sensitivity and Specificity of the two tRCR systems. of the 201 specimens, 5 specimens were excluded due to instrument errors and 4 because they were nonrespiratory specimens; 192 respiratory samples were 68 analysed. The comparison between the two methods shows that the sensitivity and specificity were 87.2% and 98.6 respectively. TRCR methods and culture showed a sensitivity and specificity of 93.2% and 98.6%, 100% and 98% respectively when compared to identification results. When compared to clinical data the sensitivity and specificity values for tRCR were 93.2% and 98.6% for tRCReady-80 and 100% and 98% for tRCRapid-160. Conclusions: TRCReady-80 system offers the advantages of higher automation, in terms of simplicity of use, speed and safety. Further studies are needed to confirm these data. the tRCR method proves clinically useful for rapid identification of M.tuberculosis complex in respiratory specimens. P118 INCREASING MYCOBACTERIAL GROWTh uSING Tika SuPPLEMENTS Tulika Munshi1, kai hilpert1, Tim Bull1 1 institute of infection and immunity, st George’s university of london Introduction: Isolation of mycobacteria is a basic, gold standard diagnostic technique. unfortunately extreme slow division rates and tendencies to enter dormancy by slow growing pathogens such as M. tuberculosis have proven either restrictively long or in many cases not possible at all. This is particularly acute in samples with a low infectious load. New methods are called for to recover and culture slow growing mycobacterial species more efficiently. Methods: using comparative growth curves for M. tuberculosis H37Rv and other mycobacteria with various conventional media, we performed a series of optimisations to develop novel natural based mycobacteria-specific media supplements (tika) that when added to Middlebrooks base (solid and liquid) could significantly improve mycobacterial growth. Results: We demonstrate that particular TiKa supplement formulations were able to stimulate M. tuberculosis and M. avium species growing in both conventional solid and automated liquid formats. this included significant decreases in lag phase, improved division rates in exponential phase and up to 2 log improvements in recovery from low load serial dilutions when compared with conventional media alone. Conclusion: TiKa supplements applied to low concentration mycobacterial inocula are able to suspend conversion toward a dormant non-proliferative phenotype and under selected conditions induce up to double the division rate of M. tuberculosis and other mycobacterial strains relative to conventional media. tika supplements could deliver significant impact on the sensitivity and rapidity of culture diagnosis in mycobacterial diseases. P126 P135 OuR FIRST RESuLTS WITh ThE GENExPERT MTB/RIF SYSTEM® Maria Müllerová1 1 Department of Mycobacteriology, citylab Prague ltd., czech republic DETECTION OF LATENT TuBERCuLOSIS IN hIVINFECTED PATIENTS FROM SIMON BOLIVAR AND SANTA CLARA hOSPITALS AT BOGOTá, COLOMBIA Martha I Murcia1, Francy johanna Pérez Llanos2, Magda Beltrán2, Liliana Sánchez2, Carlos ParraLópez1, Myriam Navarrete1, Angélica knudson1, Ricardo Sánchez3 1 Grupo Micobac-un, Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Medicina, universidad Nacional de colombia 2 universidad Nacional de colombia 3 Departamento de Psiquiatría, Facultad de Medicina, universidad Nacional de colombia the great demand for rapid, reliable and price-friendly laboratory examination of specimens for M.tB, using molecular biologic techniques and enabling prompt diagnosis and therapy, is met by the Genexpert System®. From one sample we have detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and resistance or susceptibility to Rifampicin (RIF). the test takes only 2 hours. this system is a closed, self-sufficient, fully integrated, automated molecular biologic platform. It represents a fundamental change in completely automated analysis. therefore this unique technique was introduced in our laboratory, one of the first in the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic there is a low incidence of tB (2013 – 502 cases, incidence 4.8/100,000 inhabitants; 2014 – 512 cases, incidence 4.9/100,000 inhabitants). However, due to increasing migration of subjects suffering MDR-tB this favorable situation is in danger at present. Laboratory results of subjects examined due to clinical signs (cough, fever, weight loss), as contacts, or for suspected TB are presented. In total 134 samples were examined, from which 4 were positive (3%) and from them 1 was resistant to RIF, supposition MDR-tB (0.75%), immediate treatment started, over a period of 6 months. Extraction, concentration of nucleic acid, purification, amplification and identification of target nucleic acid is possible directly from untreated primary specimens. the laboratory procedure is very simple requiring a minimum of manual steps. The system generates exact results in a very short space of time with minimal risk of contamination. Once the specimen is deposited in the detection cassette, there is no risk of contamination or cross-contamination. The test is irreplaceable in statim examination. It lasts only 2 hours – it is the fastest of molecular biologic methods currently in use, at the same time the result on susceptibility to RIF is obtained. • The test should always be implemented in suspect TB. • The test should always be implemented at start of therapy. • The test should always be implemented 2 months after termination of therapy. • The test should be performed before start of biological treatment. • the test should be performed in quantiFERoN® TB Gold In-Tube positive patients. Introduction: One-third of the people around world have Latent tuberculosis Infection (LtBI). the lifetime risk of progression to active tuberculosis for a person with LtBI is estimated to be 5–10%. In patients co-infected with M. tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIv) the risk is considerably higher for progression to active tuberculosis (10% annually). the tuberculin skin test (tSt) is the classic most used test for the detection of LTBI infection in Colombia and no evidence base exists for the selection of interferon-γ release assays (IGRA) methodology in HIv-infected patients. the aim of this study is to detect LtBI in HIv patients from two public hospitals in Bogota, Colombia. Methods: This is a comparative study that evaluates the performance of the tSt and quantiFERoN®-tB Gold In-tube (qF-G-It) for the diagnosis of LtBI in HIv-Infected patients. From october 2014 to october 2015 we expect to enroll 350 HIv-positive adult patients (over 18 years old). A total of 72 HIv patients having all inclusion criteria have been enrolled between November 2014 and March 2015 at Simon Bolivar and Santa Clara Hospitals in Bogota, Colombia, South America. Blood samples were taken and tested using qF-G-It and tSt (read 48-72 h after). the HIv /AIDS laboratory central of Simon Bolivar and Santa Clara hospitals provided information about counts of CD4+ t lymphocytes detected by flow cytometry. Results: 75 qF-G-It and tSt were performed. Among the exposed patients the median CD4 T lymphocytes count was 136 cells/µL. qF-G-It was positive in 7 patients (9.3%), negative in 20 (26.6%) and undetermined in 48 (64%). three patients qFGIt positive had <50 CD4+ cells/µL; two between 50 and 199 cells/µL and two between 200 and 500 cells/ µL. Seven qF-G-It negative patients had <50 CD4+ cells/µL, nine between 50 and 199 cells/µL and four between 200 and 500 cells/µL. Regarding patients with undetermined qF-G-It, 25 had <50 cells/µL; 14 between 50 and 199 cell/ µL and in nine between 200 and 500 cell/ µL. on the other hand, tSt was positive in three patients (4%) and negative (0 mm) in 72 (96%) Conclusion: using TST for LTBI screening in 69 Colombian individuals with HIv isn’t a good tool in Colombia. We suggest including IGRA for higher detection of LtBI, however, the performance of qFtGIT for diagnosis of LTBI is remarkably affected by cell counts lower to 500 CD4+cells/µL. P136 MYCOBACTERIAL INFECTIONS IN hIVINFECTED INDIVIDuALS IN BOGOTá, COLOMBIA juan Germán Rodríguez1, Martha I Murcia1, Magda Beltrán2, Francy johanna Pérez Llanos2, Liliana Sánchez2, Carlos Parra-López1, Myriam Navarrete1, Angélica knudson1, Ricardo Sánchez3 1 Grupo Micobac-un, Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Medicina, universidad Nacional de colombia 2 universidad Nacional de colombia 3 Departamento de Psiquiatría, Facultad de Medicina, universidad Nacional de colombia Introduction: Nowadays tuberculosis (tB) is the most important infectious disease worldwide and one of the major causes of mortality in people living with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIv/AIDS). In Colombia, with a national incidence of 25 cases by 100.000 people, in the year 2014 were reported 12.415 cases of tB, 2.029 cases of HIv/tB coinfection and 608 deaths by TB. Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection is a common complication of advanced acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) disease and is an independent predictor of mortality and shortened survival the objective of this study is to detect mycobacterial infection in HIvinfected patients with clinic suspicious of TB in two public hospitals in Bogota, Colombia. Methodology: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. Between October 2014 and October 2015 we expect to enroll 350 adults patients HIv-positive (over 18 years old), with clinical suspicious of tB. A total of 564 clinical specimens (mostly paired samples of blood, pulmonary) and extra-pulmonary samples were collected from 162 HIv positive patients. The samples were processed for acid-fast bacilli (AFB) stain, culture and Multiplex polymerase chain reaction HSP65-IS6110 PCR. Susceptibility test was determined by baCtEC MGit 460 SIRE® methodology and Genotype MtBDRplus® Results: In total 162 patients were enrolled up to now. 132/162 patients (81%) were men and 30 (19%) women (ratio male / female of 4.4:1), with an average age of 38 years. overall 33 of 162 patients (20.4%) were positive for any Mycobacterium species by acidfast staining or culture. Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtC) was identified in 24/162 patients (14%), Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) was isolated in 4/162 individuals (2.5%) and two patients (1.2%) presented simultaneous infection by MtC and MAC. the AFB smear was positive in 28/240 70 (12%) samples. Among 92 clinical samples tested by PCR Multiplex six (6.5%) were positive for HSP656110. Drug susceptibility performed in 10 cultures of MtC demonstrated that one (10%) was multidrug resistant (MDR). 29 clinical specimens evaluated by MtBDRplus Genotype ver2.0®, 14 (48%) were positive for MtC, 13 were sensitive to isoniazid and rifampicin (93%), while 1 (7%) was sensitive to isoniazid but resistant to rifampicin. Conclusion: these findings suggest usefulness of different methodologies for detecting mycobacterial infections in HIv-Infected patients in order to establish strategies for rapid diagnosis and treatment of TB in this population. P138 A POST IMPLEMENTATION REVIEW OF ThE CEPhEID xPERT MTB RIF ASSAY VERSION G4 FOR ThE DIAGNOSIS OF PuLMONARY AND ExTRA-PuLMONARY TuBERCuLOSIS IN A LARGE ACuTE TERTIARY CARE INSTITuTE Azhar hamdan1, justine Woei Ling Peh1, Yen Ee Tan1, Li-hwei Sng1 1 singapore General Hospital tuberculosis (tB) is a major health problem worldwide and its incidence is 36.7 per 100,000 in Singapore. Local cases of drug-resistant TB have also been increasing; thus quick and accurate diagnosis is essential for controlling its spread. An initial validation study using the Cepheid xpert MtB/RIF Assay version G3 on 179 pulmonary and extra-pulmonary specimens had been performed from 2010-2011 at the Central tuberculosis Laboratory. Subsequently, the laboratory evaluated and implemented the use of version G4 in 2012. A review was performed to assess the post-implementation test performance in the routine diagnostic laboratory. All samples received between October 2012 and December 2014 were included in the study, with culture being used as the gold standard. Clinical case reviews were performed for discrepant cases. Of the 569 clinical samples, 546 had evaluable results. the sensitivity and specificity for pulmonary specimens was 89.3% (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 78.5 – 95.0) and 90.5% (CI: 84.6 – 94.2); versus 68% (CI: 54.2 – 79.2) and 95.2% (CI: 92.1 – 97.1) for extrapulmonary specimens. Compared to the earlier validation study, there was no significant difference in the test sensitivity (p=0.78 for pulmonary, p=0.64 for extra-pulmonary) and specificity (p=1.0 and p=0.45). the xpert MtB/RIF was easily implemented for routine testing with minimal technical expertise required. However, the overall test performance was affected by the specimen type, prior antimicrobial treatment and equipment issues. P141 DIAGNOSIS OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS FROM PLEuRAL FLuID IN BOGOTA, COLOMBIA Martha I Murcia1, Saray Ossa2, juan Germán Rodríguez1 1 Grupo Micobac, Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Medicina, universidad Nacional de colombia 2 universidad Nacional de colombia Introduction: Pleural tuberculosis is responsible for 30 – 80% of all pleural effusions and may complicate tuberculosis in 31% of all cases. In Colombia pleural tB is the first extrapulmonary presentation in frequency. Currently the diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis is wasteful, due to the paucibacillary nature of the samples and the inspecific symptoms of the patients. Methods such as smear microscopy and culture in pleural fluid, have a low sensitivity (5% and 40% respectively) and pleural biopsy is an invasive procedure that can bring problems to the patient; for this reason the search for new diagnostic techniques more sensitive and specific is needed. Methodology: In this study, we examined the diagnostic efficiency of different techniques in pleural effusions from patients with clinical signs and symptoms of pleural tuberculosis. Molecular methods: IS6110-PCR, RT-PCR iS6110, Genotype MtBDR plus 2.0, Multiplex PCR (IS6110-hsp65). Phenotypic methods: ziehl Neelsen staining and culturing on Löwestein-jensen, Stonebrink medium and Mycobacterial Growth Indicator tube (MGIt) incubated in MGIt 460 BACtEC instrument (BD Diagnostics, Sparks, MD, uSA). Results: A total of 30/80 pleural fluid were studied. All samples were lymphocytic exudates, mean 5300 for leukocyte cell/mm3 and lymphocytes of 68%, with more than 980 Iu / L of LDH value. the smear microscopy and cultures were negative in all samples, demonstrating the low sensitivity of these methods in tuberculous pleurisy. IS-6110 RT-PCR was positive in 9/30 samples (30%), followed by PCR-IS6110 with a total of 6 positive samples (20%), Genotype MtBDRplus 2.0 was positive in 5 samples (16.6%), and the Multiplex PCR (IS6110-hsp65) was positive in 3 samples (10%). Conclusion: tuberculous pleural effusions are mainly exudates with a high burden of cellularity mainly lymphocytic type. The RT-PCR IS6110 was a noninvasive, rapid and sensitive tool for the diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis. P145 uNDIAGNOSED TuBERCuLOuS OSTEOMYELITIS OF ThE TIBIA CAuSED BY MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx; A CASE REPORT Gülnur Tarhan1, Sadık Akgun1, Abdülkadir Sari2, hakan Sayiner3, Bülent Petik4, Ismail AĞIR2, H.İbrahim Erdoğdu5, Şükrü Mehmet Ertürk4 1 Faculty of Medicine, Medical Microbiology Department, Adiyaman university 2 Faculty of Medicine, Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Adıyaman university 3 Faculty of Medicine, Department of infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Adıyaman universit 4 Faculty of Medicine, Department of radiology, Adıyaman University 5 Faculty of Medicine, Department of Patology, Adıyaman University Tuberculous osteomyelitis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex is very rare event in patients. the nonspecific nature of the symptoms and specific diagnosis leads to a delay ranges from a few weeks to up to several years. the term ‘Brodie’s abscess’ was applied to localized bone abscess that developed without prior systemic illness. Curettage of the lesion and the histopathological examination of the material obtained are necessary for confirmation of the diagnosis and offer a chance for early healing. The diagnosis of tuberculosis osteomyelitis is usually made on clinic and radiological features. But, definitive diagnosis of tuberculosis can only be made by microbiological examination from a clinical specimen taken from the patient. In our study, we report a case of Brodie’s abscess, a special form of osteomyelitis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. A 65-year-old man presented at the outpatient clinic with pain and swelling of leg for the last six months. There was history of injury for twelve years ago. there was no tB history (of cough, expectoration, haemoptysis, swelling elsewhere or other joint involvement.) Past history of major illnesses like tuberculosis, diabetes mellitus, repeated blood transfusion suggestive of congenital haemolytic anaemia, was absent. The family history was non-contributory. Surgical evacuation of the pus and curettage were performed. The curetted tissue was sent for cytological and histopathological examination and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis for mycobacterium tuberculosis. The cytological examination revealed a granulomatous process and the histopathological examination found caseating necrosis, epitheloid cell granulomas, and Langerhans giant cells. the PCR was negative. At the same time, the specimens were processed examined by smear microscopy, conventional solid Löwenstein jensen culture. EzN staining was negative. Lj cultures were positive in five weeks. the isolate was identified by using Genotype 71 MtBC and CM/AS assays CM/AS (Hain Lifescience GmbH, Nehren, Germany) and the isolate was recognized as MtBC. After identification, the isolate was tested by the Genotype MtBDR plus assay (Hain Lifescience GmbH, Nehren, Germany) for drug resistance. The test was negative for isoniazide and rifampicin resistance. P153 “TB-SPRINT” ON SPuTuM DNA ExTRACTS FROM EThIOPIA: FIRST COMPARISON TO GENExPERT AND GENOTYPE MTBDRplus Barbara Molina-Moya1, Silvia Blanco2, Mulualem Agonafir3, Michel Gomgnimbou4, Lizania Spinasse4, Guislaine Refrégier4, Daniel Datiko5, Luis Cuevas6, jose Dominguez1, Christophe Sola4 1 servei de Microbiologia, Hospital universitari Germans trias i Pujol.; institut D’investigació Germans trias i Pujol. universitat Autònoma de barcelona; ciber enfermedades respiratorias (ciberes), instituto de salud carlos iii 2 Department of Microbial, cellular and Molecular biology, college of Natural sciences, Addis Ababa university 3 infectious and other Diseases research Department, ethiopian Health and Nutrition research institute, Addis Ababa 4 institut de biologie intégrative de la cellule, orsay; centre Muraz, bobo-Dioulasso, burkina Faso 5 lstm, university of Hawassa 6 liverpool school of tropical Medicine tuberculosis (tB) is still one of the most deadly curable infectious diseases. The aim of this work was to perform high-throughput spoligotyping and detection of mutations conferring drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains circulating among tB patients in Ethiopia. For this purpose, 56 sputum specimens were collected, and ziehl-Neelsen (zN) staining and smear microscopy examination were performed. DNA was extracted from the specimens either by a microbeads/lysis method or following Genotype MtBDRplus (Hain lifesciences, Germany) manufacturer’s instructions. Genexpert MtB/RIF (Cepheid, uSA) and/or MtBDRplus were performed following manufacturer’s instructions. DNA extracts were analyzed by TB-SPRINT. This method is based on simultaneous genotyping of the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) region, rpob, katG, and the promoter region of inha, by hybridization on microbeads and detection with a Luminex device (Luminex Corp, Austin, tx). Forty-eight sputum specimens were positive for zN staining, four specimens were zN-negative, and for the remaining four specimens this result was unknown. of 56 extracted DNA, 55 DNA were analyzed, and for 49 DNA interpretable spoligotyping 72 results were obtained (genotyping rate = 89.1%). the global distribution among the 49 interpretable patterns was observed as follows. Twenty-four patterns were classified as t3-EtH: a single cluster was found (SIt 149, n=22), and two patterns were orphan. A single cluster was classified as CAS1-kili (SIt 21, n=8); two clusters belonged to CAS1-DELHI (SIt 26, n=2; SIt 25, n=2), a single cluster was classified as t1 (SIt 53, n=2); a single cluster was classified as H3 (SIt 699, n=2); and nine orphan patterns were found. of the 55 DNA samples analyzed, molecular resistance results by TB-SPRINT were obtained for 40 samples (72.7%). Sensitivity of tB-SPRINt for detecting rifampicin resistance considering Genexpert and/ or MtBDRplus as reference was 96.9% (31/32). In contrast, for the 7 samples susceptible to rifampicin by Genexpert and/or MtBDRplus, the mutation rpob 531ttG was detected by tB-SPRINt. For isoniazid resistance, sensitivity and specificity of tB-SPRINt were 75% (3/4) and 100% (2/2), respectively. these results, although requiring to be applied at a broader scale, suggest that tB-SPRINt could be applied directly on sputum and could help taking early decisions on the treatment and management of TB patients. P162 COMPARATIVE AND COMPuTATIONAL ANALYSIS OF RuSSIAN M. BOVIS BCG STRAIN Ruslan Ludannyy1, Maria Alvarez Figueroa1, Diana Levi2, Natalia Aleksandrova2, Michail Markelov1, Vladimir Dedkov1, German Shipulin1 1 central research institute for epidemiology of Federal service for surveillance on consumers’ rights Protection and Human Well-being, Moscow, russia 2 Federal State Budgetary Institution “scientific center for expertise of Medical Application Products” Ministry of Health of the russian Federation The effect of nucleotide replacements might be more affective on cells’ biogenesis than prediction of evolution divergence and intrapopulation variability. The tunnel and ligand mutations or replacements in active binding sites able to play a more critical role in cells’ pathway and finally determine a selective priority by that increasing of bacterial virulence or pathogenicity. Regardless of permanent or transient those phenomenon in vivo, for vaccine strains as example, this modification is actual, where, the genome stability is a key factor for efficiency and safe application in prevention medicine. the molecular genetic technique and global bioinformatics analysis were applied for characterization of genome and categorization of functional genetic elements M. bovis BCG strain, which used for vaccination in territory of modern Russia from 1925 up to date. The NGS technologies of Roche and Illumina have been performed independently for sequencing libraries, constructed by NExtERA and GS FLx kits. the Amos algorithm for simultaneous assemble (Geneious ver. 7.1.14), GATK for validation and Glimmer in common with Blast2go and NCBI database for annotation were applied. The chromosome of M. bovis BCG Tokyo 172 used for mapping (similarity 96.5%). Additionally, other strains from Du2 inc. wild strain were aligned for comparative analysis. In fact, the Russian strain (grp. 117339) has 7 373 972 bp with G+C contain of 65.9%. In total, 3750 CDS and 3850 total gene, 3 rRNA, 45 tRNA genes have been annotated. the 170 repeats, included 36 tE-elements were predicted by the EDAM ontology database, tRF and repeat masker. The 182 variability regions have been detected in the genome, which characterized from 1 to 3 bp mutations. All variability sites have been verified by Sanger sequencing. The calculation of evolution rate with Bonferroni correction has been created for selection of actual mutations in coding regions, which were formed after attenuation (1908-1921 yy.). the 3D macromodeling was performed by ROSETTA with prediction of functional sites and active center by SABER. For example, the mutation c. 581 G>C (p. Gly 194 Ala) was detected in м AtP-synthase subunit β (atpD) formed around 1960 (±2) year, after calculation. The mutation effect on secondary structure was observed, however, the ligand (p. GGAGvGkt 171178) and active binding sites were not affected. the tunnel simulation analysis by CAvER resulted in identification three dominant pathways corresponding to general tunnels in atpD subunit of BCG substrain (Russia), in contrast of two pathways of wild and other substrains from Du2 group. kinetics asymmetry in synthesis process of ATP might be suggested and requires of further investigation. In conclusion, this approach for analysis structure modification of coding regions in common using NGS technology may apply for evaluation of biological features of mycobacterial strains in further. P188 APPLICATION OF IN VIVO MICROBIAL ANTIGEN DISCOVERY (InMAD) FOR ThE IDENTIFICATION OF M. TuBERCuLOSIS CIRCuLATING ANTIGENS IN AN ExPERIMENTAL MuRINE MODEL Iris Estrada-García1, Bibiana Patricia RuizSánchez2, jessica Castañeda-Casimiro2, Alejandro Francisco-Cruz3, jeanet Serafín López4, Isabel Wong-Baeza2, Dulce MataEspinosa3, Rogelio hernández-Pando3, Sergio Estrada Parra2 1 National school of biological sciences, ipn 2 Depto. de inmunol., encb, ipn 3 Patología experimental, incmn, s. Zubirán, ss 4 escuela Nacional de ciencias biológicas, ipn In vivo Microbial Antigen Discovery (InMAD) was described by Nuti et al. (MBio, 2011) as an strategy to identify novel biomarkers (antigens or antibodies) as potential targets for diagnosis of two intracellular bacterial diseases. Tuberculosis is also caused by an intracellular pathogen that has been spread because of several factors, including the lack of a rapid diagnostic test. In this work we used this strategy to identify circulating antigens in the experimental tuberculosis mice model described by HernándezPando et al. (CEI, 1996). InMAD sera: individual serum samples from two groups of Balb/c mice infected with M. tuberculosis H37Rv (Mtb) (n=5, days 21 and 60 post-infection), were mixed with Titermax® and used to immunized syngeneic mice (i.e. Balb/c). Control sera was obtained from mice immunized with uninfected mice sera plus Titermax® or Titermax® alone. Western blot: three different Mtb antigen cocktails were separated using a 3/12% SDS/PAGE and reducing conditions: total extract (MttE), soluble extract (MtSE) and culture filtrate secreted proteins (CFPS). Antigens were transferred to PvDF membranes and probed with InMAD sera days 21 or 60, and control sera. 2nd antibody was goat anti-total mouse Ig´s-HRPo. Bands were developed with diaminobenzidine and hidrogen peroxide. As expected InMAD sera from uninfected mice or titermax® immunized mice showed no bands. InMAD immune sera from days 21 and 60 post-infection showed reactivity with seven and five different Mtb antigens, respectively. Five protein bands from day 21 were eluted from PvDF membranes and antigens released using 1%tritonx-100/2% SDS/50mMtrisHCl pH8.8. Samples were separated on a 3/10% SDSPAGE and identified by MS. We considered those proteins with a match for expected molecular weight and > 50 % identity. Results showed: Chaperone protein Dnak 66.7 kDa, Glutamine synthetase 53.6 kDa, Adenosylhomocysteinase 54.3 kDa, Elongation factor tu 43.5 kDa, Acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase 40.9 kDa and FHA domain-containing protein 16.9 kDa. using the InMAD strategy we identified putative antigenic targets that may be useful as tuberculosis biomarkers. Interestingly we did not find other Mtb antigens previously described as immunodominant, although Ag85 was detected but only with a 30 % identity. We look forward to continue this line of research, confirming the utility of these antigens using 2D gels and sera of tuberculosis patients. P199 EVALuATION OF ThE FLuOROTYPE® MTB ASSAY FOR uSE WITh NON-DECONTAMINATED SPECIMENS AT ThE IRISh MYCOBACTERIA REFERENCE LABORATORY (IMRL) Philomena Raftery1, Margaret Fitzgibbon1 1 irish Mycobacteria reference laboratory, labmed Directorate, st James’s Hospital 73 Over the past decade the diagnostics repertoire for tuberculosis (tB) has expanded significantly, with several technologies showing promise. In order to reduce the global burden of tuberculosis rapid detection methods are required for timely and effective intervention strategies and effective treatment of TB cases. Hain Lifescience have developed the Fluorotype® MtB, a real-time PCR assay for the direct detection of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtC) from decontaminated pulmonary and extra-pulmonary specimens. A previous study (Hoffmann-thiel 2012), performed in a low-tB prevalence setting, demonstrated an overall specificity and sensitivity of 98.9% and 88.1% respectively when compared to culture. The assay performed well on decontaminated smear-positive specimens with a sensitivity of 100% which dropped to 56.3% for smear-negative specimens. An excellent positive predictive value (100%) in smear-positive specimens demonstrated its utility in discriminating between non-tuberculosis mycobacteria (NtM) and MtC infection. The aim of the present study was to assess the performance of the Fluorotype® MtB Assay using direct specimens (without prior decontamination) as the starting material. In a prospective study, specimens from known TB positive patients were selected, and paired aliquots were collected preand post-decontamination for analysis with the Fluorotype® MtB Assay. A manual extraction using the Fluorolyse kit was performed before running batches of paired samples on the Fluorocycler. The performance characteristics of the assay were evaluated for detection of MtC in non-decontaminated patient specimens and results compared to smear microscopy and conventional culture, including clinical information where relevant. The assay performed well for non-decontaminated specimens demonstrating a sensitivity of 94.4% and specificity of 100%. Similar to previous studies, a high sensitivity value (94%) was achieved on smear positive specimens. However, the decontamination protocol (2% NaoH) used at the IMRL appears to have caused some PCR inhibition as a dramatically reduced sensitivity (46%) was noted along with a high proportion of invalid results (30%) on the decontaminated cohort of samples. This anomaly will be investigated further in an extension of the study. From the data presented, the assay can be used to provide valuable, rapid and clinically relevant information directly from non-processed specimens. In a low tB setting, this assay is a useful screening tool to replace conventional microscopy with the aim of increasing the sensitivity and speed of diagnosis of tuberculosis. However, it should not be considered a substitute but rather an adjunct to traditional culture methods. 74 P216 ThE EFFICIENCY AND RELIABILITY OF COMMERCIAL Tk L ANTI TB PNB kIT FOR RAPID ANTI-TuBERCuLOSIS DRuG SuSCEPTIBILITY TESTING Ismail Ceyhan1, Zehra Ortarık1, Resul Altınsoy1 1 Atatürk chest Diseases and chest surgery; training and research Hospital, Ankara, turkey tk Media are rapid colorimetric mycobacterial culture media. the color of tk Media changes from red to yellow by mycobacterial growth or to green by contamination. tk Media can be monitored both visually and in automated incubator reader, Mycolor TK. TK SLC L medium used for mycobacterial isolation from clinical specimens and media in TK L Anti tb PNB kit, used for susceptibility testing, are ready to use liquid media and they are produced in plastic tubes since almost one year. this is the first evaluation of efficiency and reliability of tk L Anti tb PNB kit since its production in plastic tubes. The kit was tested by 20 Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M tb) collection strains obtained from WHo, with known susceptibility patterns. For this purpose, suspensions of mycobacteria were prepared and diluted using the tubes present in the kit and then inoculated to control and drug containing tubes including the one with para-nitro-benzoic acid (PNB), for differentiation of M tb complex bacteria and Mycobacteria other than tuberculosis (Mott). All strains were identified to be susceptible to PNB. The susceptibility to INH and Rifampin of all 20 strains and in 19 strains for streptomycin and ethambutol, were correctly identified. While one strain, which was resistant to streptomycin was misdiagnosed as susceptible, one other strain, which was susceptible to ethambutol, was misdiagnosed as resistant. TK L Anti Tb PNB Kit can be considered a reliable tool for anti-tuberculosis drug susceptibility testing. Being ready-to-use, it eliminates contamination and errors that may occur during preparation of anti-tuberculosis drug containing tubes in other rapid culture systems. Extended evaluation studies including larger number of strains will be valuable. hOST-PAThOGEN INTERACTION P23 ThE SIGMA FACTOR SigD OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS ENhANCES ThE TRANSCRIPTIONAL ExPRESSION OF ThE SEPTuM SITE DETERMINING PROTEIN IN STATIONARY PhASE Nora Rios-Sarabia1, Miguel Angel Ares2, jorge Gonzalez-y-Merchand3 1 instituto Mexicano del seguro social 2 unidad de investigación Médica en enfermedades infecciosas y Parasitarias, centro Médico Nacional siglo XXi, instituto Mexicano del seguro social; laboratorio de Microbiología Molecular, escuela Nacional de ciencias biológicas, instituto Politécnico Nacional; escuela Nacional de ciencias biológicas, instituto Politécnico Nacional, México 3 National school of biological sciences, ipn; intituto Politecnico Nacional; Dept. of Mirobiol., Natl. sch. biol. sci., ipn The M. tuberculosis genome encodes 13 putative sigma factors, which controls gene expression in response to specific extracellular signals. Some sigma factors regulate housekeeping genes but others denominated alternative sigma factors have been identified as regulators responding to specific environmental stimuli and stress. The alternative sigma factor SigD of M. tuberculosis controls the expression of genes whose expression is normally induced during stationary phase in vitro. the Mt3760 gene of M. tuberculosisCDC1551 codes for the Septum site determining protein (Ssd), which promotes the formation of elongated cells by inhibition of septumin response to the stressful environment. In order to investigate if SigD could be related to ssd regulation, we determined the transcriptional expression profile, performing qRt-PCR in M. tuberculosis CDC1551 wild-type and ∆sigD strains cultured in vitro in exponential and stationary phases. M. tuberculosis CDC1551 wild-type and ∆sigD strains were cultured in Middlebrock 7H9 liquid medium supplemented with 10% of oADC. total RNA was isolated in the exponential and stationary phases qRt-PCR was performed in a LightCycler 480 instrument using SyBR Green I (Roche), 16S rRNA was used as a reference gene for normalization. Statistical analysis for differential gene expression was performed using the one-way Anova and tukey´s multiple comparison test. We found that the transcriptional expression of ssd in the wild-type strain was significantly higher in stationary phase. Interestingly in the ∆sigD strain the ssd gene was transcribed at the same level in the exponential and stationary phases. We conclude that, these results show the potential of SigD to induce over expression of ssd gene in stationary phase. These data could suggest that SigD activates the transcriptional expression of ssd gene in response to the stressful environment of stationary growth phase in vitro. P38 PhAGOCYTE CELLS BACTERICIDE ChARACTERISTICS IN PATIENTS WITh PuLMONARY TuBERCuLOSIS Marina Dyakova1, Olga Titarenko1, Diljara Esmedlyaeva1, Viatcheslav Zhuravlev1 1 research institute of Phthisiopulmonology Background: resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) determined by molecular-genetic mechanisms depends on intracellular cooperation of mononuclears (Mn) and neutrophils (N) which is a basis of the common phagocyte domen functioning. Peculiarities of coordination of Mn and N activities and Mtb resistance are thought to be responsible for results of antituberculosis therapy. Objective: to study blood Mn and N functional status in patients with infiltrative pulmonary tuberculosis (IPt) eliminating drug susceptibility (DS) and resistant (DR) Mtb. Methods: Mn and N bactericide functions were estimated using the following criteria: for oxygenindependent function - levels of lactoferrine (Lf) and elastase (El), for oxygen-dependent function – characteristics of nitroblue tetrazolium (NBt) recovery test - spontaneos (NBts), induced (NBtin) and their correlation – index (NBtin/NBts), for nitrolizing function – concentration of nitrite (No). 90 patients with IPT were divided in two groups: the 1st eliminating DS Mtb (n=51) and DR Mtb (n=39). Results: in both groups of patients there were found similar but quantitavely different changes of Mn and N characteristics: increase of oxygenindependent activity and decrease of NO generation. Characteristics of oxidative stress were in referent range for Mn with a tendency to increase for N. there was found a difference in structure correlation in compared groups: only in the 1st (DS) a significant positive correlation was revealed between indices of oxidative and nitrolizing types of stress in Mn and N, synergy changes in oxygen-dependent and independent functions in both types of cells. Similar correlations are absent in patients with DR Mtb. Conclusion: according to the results of the study it is suggested that Mtb resistance does not influence the bactericide function of the phagocytes but is associated with changes in intercellular cooperation. 75 P45 PARTICIPATION OF NON-CODING RNAs IN ThE ADAPTATION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS TO A LIPID ENVIRONMENT M Ares1, Maria Carmen Menendez2, jG Rodriguez3, AC hernandez3, j Gonzales-yMerchand4, C helguera4, jR Bustos3, jM Anzola3, MM Zambrano3, Mj Garcia5, P Del Portillo3 1 instituto Politecnico Nacional México 2 Facultad de Medicina, universidad Autónoma de Madrid 3 corporación corpogen 4 instituto Politecnico Nacional, México 5 universidad Autónoma de Madrid *mcm and MA contributed equally to the work Lipids are a main energy source of M. tuberculosis during human infection. Our previous study has showed a set of changes that marks the global transcriptional adaptation of the tubercle bacilli to a lipid environment (Rodriguez et al, 2014). Nevertheless the number of transcripts was lower in the presence of fatty acids (FA), non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are among the more transcribed products, in particular during the stationary phase in the FA enriched environment. In order to have insight into the role putatively played by those ncRNAs in the lipid environment, we applied the programme http://cs.wellesley.edu/~btjaden/ TargetRNA2/ to ncRNAs that showed high level of expression in the conditions studied. That programme gives information on the target sequences where the ncRNAs putatively links, along the genome of M. tuberculosis, as well as the digital hybridization energy and the significant value of the link detected. Main features found: 1. three of the five ncRNAs showing highest expression link to upstream regions of genes members of the type seven secretion system (t7SS). Interestingly, the genes showed significant higher expression in dextrose compared to FA. Thus probably indicating the attenuation of the bacteria in the lipid environment. 2. other interesting target was the gene iniB, member of an efflux pump. this pump could be acting during stationary phase in FA. 3. A link to acyltransferase, differentially expressed in FA compared to dextrose, was also detected for another ncRNA. The gene was found to be essential in the final step of the penta-acyltrehaloses (PAt) biosynthesis. 4. A link to a toxin-antitoxin system was also detected for another ncRNA. This nc could activate the T/A system in dextrose during stationary phase. The work demonstrated that knowledge on the participation of non-coding regions is relevant for a better understanding of the tuberculosis pathogenicity. Acknowledgements: We thank J Gonzalo-Asensio for his advice on nc- 76 RNA. Funding resources: International Cooperation CEALuAM and the Spanish Ministry of Health (AES, PI1301218). P97 ThE GROWTh RATE OF ThE STRAINS MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS BEIjING ISOLATED BEFORE AND DuRING TREATMENT AND IN ThE TIME OF PASSAGES ON LOWENSTEIN-jENSEN MEDIuM Olga Manicheva1, Marine Dogonadze1, Natalia Melnikova1, Viatcheslav Zhuravlev1, Anna Zmaznova1, Anna Vyazovaya2, Igor MOkROuSOV2, Olga Narvskaya3, Boris Vishnevskiy1 1 research institute of Phthisiopulmonology 2 st. Petersburg Pasteur institute 3 st. Petersburg Pasteur institute; research institute of Phthisiopulmonology Background: Growth rate (GR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in the environment is determined by the genetic capacity of strain to adaptation and depends on the stage of treatment. Aim: - to estimate the GR on a nutrient medium Mtb strains with the same spoligotype and similar drug resistance isolated before and during treatment and after serial passages. Methods: We examined GR of 30 MDR or xDR Mtb strains of Beijing lineage isolated from pulmonary tB patients, 10 of these strains with the same type of mutations in genes rpob and katG had passaged on Lowenstein-jensen medium (10 generations) and determined the affiliation to the cluster B0/ W148 (Mokrousov et al., 2012). Fluorescence of Mtb suspension (1 u McFarland deluted 40-fold in 7H9 broth with 10% oADC, 200 µl/well, 30 µl 0.01% resazurin) was measured daily for 7 days. Growth curve was constructed by calculating of mean value of fluorescence, the slope of this curve was calculated as conventional unit (cu) of GR. GR mean value and 95% confidence interval was calculated: 1) for Mtb isolates from untreated patients (group I, n=12) and treated ones (group II, n=18), 2) for isolates after 3rd and 10th rounds of passages, in comparison with H37Rv. the significance of differences between groups was determined by t-test. Results: the Mtb GR was 293.8+42.9 cu in group I, 197.8+68.6 cu - in group II (p=0.001). Relatively strain H37Rv GR strains (3rd generation) untreated patients (n=4) accounted for 75.7-100%, untreated with further treatment failure - 62.4, 65.4 and 68.8%, patients with a bacterioexcretion history more 2 years - 6.7, 14.3 and 153.5%. A similar pattern was observed at the 10 th generation, except for two strains. 7227 strain (cluster B0/W148, treatment history of >2 y) was distinguished by fast growth, its GR was in 1.5 and 1.6 times greater than the H37Rv during passages. Conclusions: GR MDR/xDR isolates of Beijing family varied, and was higher in the untreated vs treated patients. Passages in 8 of 10 cases did not affect GR. Mtb GR should be considered with clinical and strain genetic data. P109 MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS DORMANCY: A SYSTEMATIC STuDY Barbara Tizzano1, Stefan Niemann1 1 Molecular Mycobacteriology, research center borstel, German center for infection research, borstel, Germany Mycobacterium tuberculosis, one of the major responsible of mortality worldwide, has the ability to latently reside in humans for decades without causing clinical symptoms. The mechanisms leading to this condition are not entirely elucidated. The Wayne hypoxic model is one of the most successful models so far described to investigate the “dormant” state, a bacterial phenotype characterized by slow replication, increased resistance to antibiotics and loss of metabolic activity. Wayne and coworkers showed that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can survive anaerobiosis for long periods of time only after a gradual transition to a microaerophilic stationary phase. The Wayne model has been so far employed to investigate dormancy in H37Rv but the knowledge on hypoxiainduced dormancy in other phylogenetic branches of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is still scarce. Based on the hypothesis that different lineages may play different roles in disease outcome, vaccine efficacy, drug resistance and biological responses in experimental models, our study focuses on the dormancy phenotype induced by anaerobic conditions and we analyzed lineage-specific differences in the transition from the active state to non-replicating persistence. With this aim we set up the Wayne model for clinical isolates belonging to Euro American, East African Indian and Beijing lineages. Dormancy was induced in the laboratory strain H37Rv, two clinical isolates of the Haarlem lineage, two from Cameroun, three from East African Indian and three from Beijing. Further goal of our work was to investigate reactivation responses in the selected strains and to identify transcriptional changes occurring in early stages of resuscitation. In this study reactivation triggered by oxygen and fresh medium is showed. In conclusion, we have set up a dormancy model with strains from different lineages of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to investigate the lineage-specific responses to hypoxia and the ability to survive and recover from this stress condition. Typical growth curves were obtained by OD594 and confirmed by c.f.u. Our results indicate that all the strains belonging to the Euro American phylogeny are able to survive the anaerobic conditions and they recover their ability to grow and divide in liquid and solid medium. Interestingly, the East African Indian and the Beijing lineages do not survive anaerobiosis and they lose the ability to resuscitate. Microarray analysis on RNA sampled from different strains and at different time points will reveal more about the mechanisms behind dormancy and reactivation. P210 RECOGNITION OF ZnT8, PROINSuLIN AND hOMOLOGOuS MAP PEPTIDES IN SARDINIAN ChILDREN AT RISk OF T1D PRECEDES DETECTION OF CLASSICAL ISLET AuTOANTIBODIES Leonardo A Sechi1, Magda Niegowska1, Daniela Paccagnini1 1 university of sassari Antibodies recognizing mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis epitopes cross-react with the β-cell antigens zinc transporter 8 (zNt8) and proinsulin in type 1 diabetes patients. As numerous evidences highlight the increasing incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (t1D) in children, an early diagnosis is crucial for defining correct treatment and diet. Recent studies suggest that detection of antibodies against znt8 in pre-clinical phase can predict t1D development. Previously, we demonstrated a significative association of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) with t1D in adult Sardinian patients. to enforce this finding, we investigated the presence of antibodies against znt8 and proinsulin, with respective MAP homologous peptides associated to t1D, in children at risk for t1D involved in the tRIGR study. Positivity was observed in 48% of patients compared to 5,85% of healthy controls, preceding appearance of anti-islet autoantibodies. Being MAP easily transmitted to humans with infected cow’s milk and detected in retail infant formulas in Europe, MAPderived peptides could be present in untreated and hydrolysed formula, and act as antigens stimulating β-cell autoimmunity. 77 TB EPIDEMIOLOGY P30 GENOTYPING OF MuLTIDRuG RESISTANT MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS ISOLATES IN jALISCO MExICO Gladys Lopez-Avalos1, Martin Lopez-Rodriguez2, Manuel Sandoval-Diaz 3, juan Carlos VillanuevaArias 3, Carlos Vázquez-Chacon4, Ikuri AlvarezMaya1 1 the center for research and Applied technology in Jalisco (ciatej) 2 Public Health laboratory of Jalisco 3 Health Minister of Jalisco 4 institute for epidemiologic Diagnosis and reference (indre) Tuberculosis is a disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the transmission of M. tuberculosis presumably fuelled the worldwide problem of emerging drug resistance. One of the biggest concerns in TB control is the dispersion of strains resistance to first line antibiotics. there is evidence that the genetic variability among clinical isolates may have consequences on the outcome of infections. In México, especially in the state of jalisco, there are few studies on the dispersion of tuberculosis strains. To analyze the pattern of tuberculosis strains in Jalisco we studied the genetic diversity to understand the dynamics of transmission in Mexico. This study was conducted with isolates from the Public Health Laboratory of jalisco, collected from july 2012 to July 2013. A combination of both methods Spoligotyping (Diagnostic kit ocimum Biosolutions) and 15 MIRu-vNtR were assesses. out of a total of 65 isolates tested by drug susceptibility 26.5% were sensitive to the first line drugs, 7.8% were classified as multi drug resistant, 26.5% were mono-resistant, 14.0% poly-resistant and 25% were patients who received treatment for 6 months but the treatment failed. The spoligotyping detected different types of strains linages in jalisco, t1 (18.7%), H3 (7.8%), MANu (4.6%), x1 (3.1%), EAI5 and LAM1 (1.5%), finally orphan strains were the bigger group found in jalisco (60%). Dendogram analysis indicated that none of the multidrug resistant isolates had a similar MIRu-vNtR pattern. the analysis will be useful to the health sector to control resistance to first line antibiotics. this study was supported by CoNACyt grant SALuD-2012-01-180574. 78 P51 MONITORING OF MYCOBACTERIuM BOVIS FROM FREE-RANGING WILDLIFE IN SOuTh kOREA Yun-ho jang1, Soyoon Ryoo1, Yoonra jang1, Narae kim1, jin kyoung kim1, hang Lee2, Soyoung Park3, Woong-seog Song3, jong-Taek kim4, Soo hee Lee1, jae Myung kim4* 1 Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and inspection Agency 2 conservation Genome resource bank for Korean Wildlife and research institute for Veterinary science, seoul National university 3 Gyeonggido Northern livestock & Veterinary Medicine, North-branch 4 section of Wildlife internal Medicine, Kangwon National university *corresponding Author Bovine tuberculosis (btB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis is a transmissible disease, that mainly affects deer and livestock such as cattle. Bovine tuberculosis has been identified in a wide variety of free-ranging wildlife. Recently, awareness has increased of tuberculosis in wildlife as a potential reservoir of infection for domestic animals worldwide. Between 2012 and 2014, we attempted to isolate M. bovis from 620 wild animals, mainly korean water deer and raccoon dogs from 10 regions in South Korea. Mycobacterium bovis was isolated in two wild boar captured in Gyeonggi Province. Above this, M. intracellulare was isolated from 8.06% and M. avium subspecies avium was isolated from 1.94% of the animals. Other non-tuberculosis materials were isolated from 19.3% of the animals. Spoligotypes of two M. bovis isolates were SB0140, SB1040, and MIRu-vNtR types using 12 primers (MIRu4, MIRu16, MIRu27, MIRu31, EtR-A, EtR-B, EtR-C, quB11b, quB26, quB3336, vNtR2401, vNtR3171) were 4-2-3-3-7-5-5-4-4-3-4-3, 5-2-3-3-7-5-5-4-3-10-5-2. Compared to results from near livestock farms with bovine tuberculosis, one wild boar shared a same pattern with this. our study shows the first case of M. bovis infection in wild boars in South korea, and transmission between domestic animals and wild boar would be possible. Although number of wild boars used this study is not enough to overall epidemiological situation of btB in South korea, because of their high densities and activity ranges, wild boars have the potential to spread M. bovis across a broad range of animals, including wild and domestic animals. Further studies are needed to improve the understanding of tuberculosis epidemiology in wild animals and assess the interspecies transmission between wild and domestic animals in South Korea. P67 P84 MOLECuLAR SNAPShOT OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS POPuLATION IN REPuBLIC OF kARELIA, RuSSIAN FEDERATION Anna Vyazovaya1, Natalia Solovieva2, julia kononenko3, Natalia Melnikova2, Tatiana Sunchalina3, Daria Starkova1, Igor MOkROuSOV1, Viatcheslav Zhuravlev2, Olga Narvskaya4 1 st. Petersburg Pasteur institute 2 research institute of Phthisiopulmonology 3 republican tb Dispensary, republic of Karelia 4 st. Petersburg Pasteur institute, research institute of Phthisiopulmonology PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF MOLECuLAR GENOTYPING OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS FOR ThE TuBERCuLOSIS CONTROL IN ThE COuNTRY Iveta Ozere1, Inta jansone2, Ilva Pole2, Girts Skenders3, Anda Nodieva4, Anita Skangale3, Olga Bobrikova3, Zita Lauska3, Ruta Pastare5, Nina Gusarevica6, Margarita Baumane7, Matiss Bauskenieks2, Renate Ranka2, Viesturs Baumanis2 1 Department of infectology and Dermatology, Riga Stradiņš University; Clinic of Tuberculosis and lung Diseases, riga east university Hospital, latvia 2 latvian biomedical resarch and study centre, riga; clinic of tuberculosis and lung Diseases, riga east university Hospital, latvia 3 clinic of tuberculosis and lung Diseases, riga east university Hospital, latvia 4 Department of infectology and Dermatology, Riga Stradiņš University, Latvia 5 balvu and Gulbene Hospital Association, latvia 6 Daugavpils regional Hospital, latvia 7 tukuma Hospital, latvia Background: Russian Republic of Karelia is located on Russian-Finnish border and includes most of historical karelia land. In 2014, tuberculosis (tB) incidence here decreased since 2009 (45.8 vs 62.3 / 100 000). We performed a molecular characterization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates obtained in Republic of Karelia in 2013-2014. Methods: M. tuberculosis isolates were recovered from newly-diagnosed pulmonary TB patients. Drug susceptibility testing was done with method of absolute concentrations. DNA was subjected to spoligotyping, spoligotypes were compared to SItvIt_WEB and MIRu-vNtRplus. LAM family was detected by testing specific Rv0129c SNP, LAM isolates were tested for RD115, RD174, RD-Rio, and LAM-RuS markers. Beijing B0/W148 cluster was identified by testing Rv2664-Rv2665::IS6110 insertion. Results: Spoligotyping of 74 M. tuberculosis isolates revealed 24 profiles including 7 shared types (2 to 40 isolates) and 15 singletons. the largest types were SIt1 (Beijing, n=40) and SIt40 (t4, n=5). Beijing family was the largest (n=41) followed by ill-defined t family (n=11), ural (n=8) and LAM (n=8). Beijing В0/ W148-cluster was identified in 14 (34%) of 41 Beijing isolates; all В0/W148 isolates were drug-resistant. Seven of 8 LAM isolates belonged to RD115/LAMRuS branch, one SIt20 isolate was of RD-Rio sublineage. MDR was found in 31 (42%) isolates and was combined to resistance to: StR (n=31), EMB (24), kAN (16), AMk (9) and CAP (7). MDR was more prevalent among Beijing (25 of 41, 61%) vs non-Beijing isolates (6 of 33, 18%; P<0.0001). three isolates (all – Beijing) were xDR. All SIt40 isolates were drug sensitive. Conclusions: Circulation of the MDR associated isolates of the Beijing genotype (55% of studied collection) and its B0/W148 cluster (34% of the Beijing group) continues to influence the current situation with TB control in northwestern Russia including Republic of Karelia. The other well-delineated genetic families such as ural and LAM appear to be dominated by pansusceptible isolates. Acknowledgements: Russian Science Foundation (project 14-14-00292). Introduction: Latvia still belongs to high-incidence countries with tuberculosis (tB) notification rates of 31.6 per 100,000 in 2014. tB can be caused by genetically various strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mt) associated with different virulence and drug susceptibility. Investigation of Mt strains causing local outbreaks can be used as a tool for TB control in a country. Spoligotyping could be applied as a rapid and easy method for initial evaluation of mycobacterial isolates for TB outbreak assessment. Goal of the study: Identification of the genotypes of Mt strains causing tB outbreaks and evaluation of suitability of spoligotyping method for the investigation of acute outbreaks. Materials and methods: Retrospective crosssectional study. Spoligotyping was applied to Mt isolates obtained from children and their potential sources of infection, as well as from other tB patients that epidemiologically linked either to diseased child or possible source case. Identical clusters of Mt spoligotypes were assumed as an evidence of transmission of the infection within the group of epidemiologically linked individuals. Results: Mt spoligotyping was performed during 2001- 2014 on Mt isolates obtained from 105 children and their 131 potential infectious source cases. Identical genotypes from a child and one or more infectious sources were detected in 73/105 (70%) of matched child-infectious source case groups. Out of them, 13 clusters with 3-9 isolates of identical spoligotypes in epidemiologically linked groups of patients were identified. Spoligotypes SIt766, SIt50, SIt42, SP57, and SIt1 were identified in biggest clusters that included 6-9 TB isolates with identical 79 genotypes. SIt766 was identified in a large group of 9 epidemiologically linked patients. SIT50 spoligotype was detected in a group of 7 patients, thus allowed us to trace the transmission of the infection from the household to the community during the three year period. SP57 spoligotype was identified in a group of 6 patients and transmission of the infection was followed up during 2002-2013. Other spoligotypes causing outbreaks were SIt53, SIt254, SIt262, SIt40 and unique spoligotypes. In outbreaks related to SIt766, SIt50, SIt42, SP57, SIt1, and SIt262 the infection was transmitted to the household contacts and close contacts (accordingly to WHo definitions) as well. Conclusions: 1. Spoligotypes of Mt causing largest tB outbreaks might be assumed as potentially more virulent in terms of the disease in contacts 2. Prophylactic interventions and contact investigations must be more aggressive for Mt with spoligotypes SIt766, SIt254, SIt1,SIt42 and SP57 3. Routine use of spoligotyping of Mt in clinical practise is suitable method helping clinicians to get initial orientation in TB outbreak Acknowledgments: This study was supported by the vPP 2014 “BIoMEDICINE” P100 LABORATORY CROSS CONTAMINATION – MOLECuLAR EVIDENCE OF FALSEPOSITIVE CuLTuRES OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS Ewa Augustynowicz Kopeć1, Monika Kozińska1, katarzyna Wasiak1, Anna Borek1, Dagmara Borkowska1, Magdalena klatt1 1 research institute of tuberculosis and lung Diseases Identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in clinical material from the patient is the basis of microbiological confirmation of tB, and remains gold standard for diagnosis. The results of numerous studies show that about 0.1-4% derived culture may be the result of cross-contamination. It occurs most frequently during processes of collection and processing of clinical samples, as a result of infection during medical procedures. The misdiagnosis of M. tuberculosis infection has many consequences medical and psychological implications for patients and their families and financial and public health implications for health-care institutions. Microbiology laboratory procedures should minimize the possibility of laboratory cross-contamination of specimens and maximize the ability to recognize a cluster of falsepositive results. Molecular typing methods provide rapid, accurate and effective means of identifying false-positive M. tuberculosis cultures. Aim of study: Determining the incidence of cross- 80 contamination in the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory in Poland during 2011 - June 2014. Materials and Methods: The material for the study included 598 isolates of M. tuberculosis complex from 408 patients with suspected tuberculosis. For the epidemiological and molecular analysis we selected 26 (4.3%) cultures, which, according to the CDC guidelines, could be potentially false-positive. the information that determined the choice of strains is the same date of inoculation and the sequence number of the study or in close proximity to the material from which the culture was obtained. Molecular analysis of the strains was performed using spoligotyping and MIRu-vNtR methods. Results: We examined 12 potential crosscontamination incidents. On the basis of DNA fingerpinting, contamination was confirmed in 4 cases. the consequence was to obtain 5 (0.8%) false-positive cultures of M. tuberculosis complex. Conclusions: Detection of cross-contamination of materials from patients with suspected tuberculosis has epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic significance. Proper system of monitoring and identification of false positive cultures requires reliable medical documentation and using appropriate genotyping methods. Good communication between clinicians and the laboratory staff is required for the rapid identification of specimen cross-contamination. P101 ExPLORING ThE SOCIODEMOGRAPhIC AND CLINICAL FEATuRES OF ExTRAPuLMONARY TuBERCuLOSIS IN SAuDI ARABIA Sahal Al-hajoj Al-Nakhli1, Bright Varghese1 1 King Faisal specialist Hospital and research centre, riyadh, saudi Arabia Background: Saudi Arabia annually reports a relatively higher proportion (28-32%) of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPtB) cases in comparison to other global regions. However, there were few studies conducted so far to determine the sociodemographic factors and clinical manifestations associated with EPTB at a nationwide level. Methodology: A retrospective analysis on culture positive EPTB isolates collected from all the provinces of the country were conducted for a period of 12 months to determine the spectrum of diversity in EPTB infection sites and the confounding factors. A detailed clinical and demographical data analysis was carried out along with first line drug susceptibility testing. Principal findings: Intra-thoracic and extra-thoracic lymph nodes (44.6%) were the most common sites of infection followed by gastrointestinal (17.3%) and central nervous systems (11.8%). Male patients were mostly infected (58.8%), in contrary to the global trend. Any drug resistance was observed in 23.1% isolates with a 2.1% of multi-drug resistance. HIv reactivity was found only in 2.2% cases. A higher proportion of Saudi nationals (58.8%) were infected compared to the immigrants, descending mostly from South Asia (34.4%) and South East Asia (31.2%). the Saudi population predominated with all forms of EPTB while immigrants showed no significant variations. Conclusions: Saudi Arabia faces a serious threat from EPtB, particularly to the central nervous system and gastrointestinal systems. More effective diagnostic strategies and control measures must be implemented to reduce the high rate of EPTB in the country. In addition, these findings warrant further detailed research to explore all related comorbid conditions of EPtB development, particularly the host-related factors. P142 DIRECT SPOLIGOTYPING ON DNA ExTRACTED FROM MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS POSITIVE ZIEhL-NEELSEN STAINED SLIDES FROM EThIOPIA Barbara Molina-Moya1, Silvia Blanco2, Mulualem Agonafir3, Michel Gomgnimbou4, Lizania Spinasse5, Meissiner Gomes1, Guislaine Refrégier5, Daniel Datiko6, Luis Cuevas7, jose Dominguez1, Christophe Sola5 1 servei de Microbiologia, Hospital universitari Germans trias i Pujol.; institut D’investigació Germans trias i Pujol. universitat Autònoma de barcelona; ciber enfermedades respiratorias (ciberes), instituto de salud carlos iii 2 Department of Microbial, cellular, and Molecular biology; college of Natural sciences, Addis Ababa university 3 Nfectious and other Diseases research Department; ethiopian Health and Nutrition research institute, Addis Ababa 4 institut de biologie intégrative de la cellule, orsay, France; centre Muraz, bobo-Dioulasso, burkina Faso 5 institut de biologie intégrative de la cellule, orsay 6 lstm, university of Hawassa 7 liverpool school of tropical Medicine tuberculosis (tB) remains one of the most threatening diseases. Ethiopia has the second largest population in Africa and ranks 7th among the high TB burden countries. The aim of this work was to perform high-throughput spoligotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from TB patients in Ethiopia. A total of 93 sputum specimens were collected and examined by ziehl-Neelsen staining and smear microscopy. DNA was extracted from the stained preparations and analyzed by spoligotyping with a microbead-based method in a Luminex device. Interpretation of raw hybridization data was done by two experts. The 93 sputum specimens analyzed were smear 2+ or smear 3+. Interpretable spoligotyping results were obtained in 60 of the 93 DNA extracts analyzed, yielding a genotyping rate of 64.5%. the following global spoligotyping distribution was observed: 25 patterns belonged to the t1 family, 11 patterns to t3-EtH, 11 patterns to H3, and the remaining 13 patterns to other clades. The 25 patterns classified as t1 were distributed in five clusters (SIt 53, n=10; SIt 245, n=7; SIt 1877, n=3; SIt 2447, n=2; SIt 373, n=2) and one pattern was found to be orphan. The 11 patterns belonging to T3-ETH were clustered under the SIT 149. Among the 11 patterns classified as H3, a single cluster was found (SIt 777, n=5) and six patterns were orphan. Finally, the genetic diversity of the remaining 13 patterns was observed as follows: CAS1-kili (SIt 21, n=2); MANu2 (SIt 1096, n=2); SIt 46, n=2; and seven orphan patterns. In addition to the spoligotyping results, we attempted to genotype SNPs in genes related to drug resistance (rpob, katG, inha). However, no interpretable results were obtained due to the poor quality of DNA. In conclusion, to our knowledge, this is the first time direct spoligotyping is performed on DNA extracted from ziehl-Neelsen-stained slides in Ethiopia, by a simple and high-throughput method, and with an acceptable genotyping rate, providing an alternative way to accurently rapidly identify TB patients by their spoligotyping profile. P149 GENETIC DIVERSITY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS IN NIGERIA BASED ON SPOLIGOTYPING ON DNA ExTRACTED FROM POSITIVE ZIEhL-NEELSEN-STAINED SLIDES Barbara Molina-Moya1, Silvia Blanco2, Michel Gomgnimbou3, Lizania Spinasse4, Meissiner Gomes1, Guislaine Refrégier4, Luis Cuevas5, Lovett Lawson6, Saddiq T. Abdurrahman7, joshua Obasanya7, jose Dominguez1, Christophe Sola4 1 servei de Microbiologia, Hospital universitari Germans trias i Pujol.; institut D’investigació Germans trias i Pujol. universitat Autònoma de barcelona; ciber enfermedades respiratorias (ciberes), instituto de salud carlos iii 2 Department of Microbial, cellular, and Molecular biology; college of Natural sciences, Addis Ababa university 3 institut de biologie intégrative de la cellule, orsay; centre Muraz, bobo-Dioulasso, burkina Faso 4 institut de biologie intégrative de la cellule, orsay 5 liverpool school of tropical Medicine 6 bingham university, Nassarawa state 7 National tb, buruli ulcer and leprosy control Programme, Abuja tuberculosis (tB) remains one of the most threatening diseases. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, has one of the world’s largest burdens of tB. our objective was to perform high-throughput 81 spoligotyping and detection of mutations conferring drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains circulating among patients with suspected drug resistance in Nigeria. A total of 929 sputum specimens were collected in state hospitals from June 2013 to December 2014. ziehl-Neelsen staining and smear microscopy examination were performed. DNA was extracted from the stained preparations. Simultaneous spoligotyping and detection of mutations associated with drug resistance were performed by a microbeadbased method in a Luminex device. Of the 929 sputum specimens analyzed, 505 were smear 3+ and 424 were smear 2+. Interpretable spoligotyping results were obtained for 549 of the 929 DNA samples analyzed (59.1%). Conversely, no results were obtained for the detection of drug resistance mutations. Among the interpretable spoligotypes, the Cameroun family (SIt61 and derived, signature: spacers Δ23-25 and Δ33-36) represented broadly one out of two patterns, suggesting that it is an emerging genotype family in Nigeria. M. africanum, which includes M. africanum West-African 1 (SIt431 and SIt338, signature: spacer Δ8-12 and Δ37-39) and M. africanum WestAfrican 2 (SIt181, signature: spacers Δ8-9 and Δ39), represented one out of five patterns. this relatively high percentage of M. africanum, compared to some recent results obtained in Cameroun, confirms that these strains remain broadly spread, and likely transmitted into the Nigerian population. Finally, all other lineages, including Euro-American (t, Haarlem, LAM, S, etc, signature: spacer Δ33-36), and all other M. tuberculosis signatures represented broadly one out of three patterns, indicating that there is an important part of the TB endemia in Nigeria due to the Euro-American (i.e. «modern») strains. Due to the quality of DNA, which was extracted from stained microscopy slides, it was not possible to obtain molecular drug resistance results. In summary, we present an update of the M. tuberculosis spoligotypes circulating in Nigeria. We also show that spoligotyping data can be obtained in a rapid and high-throughput manner with DNA extracted from zN-stained slides. This may potentially help improving the management of TB patients. P163 CLONAL COMPLExITY IN MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS IS MORE ThAN AN ANECDOTAL FINDING: 2 ExAMPLES OF hOW IT ChALLENGES STANDARD DIAGNOSTIC PRACTICE Laura Pérez-Lago1, Miguel Martínez Lirola2, Yurena Navarro1, Marta herranz1, María jesús Ruiz Serrano1, Pilar Miralles1, Emilio Bouza1, Darío García de Viedma3 1 Hospital General universitario Gregorio Marañón 2 complejo Hospitalario torrecárdenas 3 servicio de Microbiología clínica y 82 enfermedades infecciosas. Hospital General universitario Gregorio Marañón; inst. investigación sanitaria Gregorio Marañón; cei campus Moncloa, ucm-upm, Madrid, spain Mixed infections by MtB are expected in high prevalence areas but not considered outside these areas. We present 2 examples of complex infections that challenged standard diagnostic procedures. The first involved a patient coinfected by a susceptible strain and an under-represented MDR strain. the genotypic susceptibility test results were ambiguous. MIRu-vNtR revealed double alleles in 11 loci, thus confirming coinfection by 2 strains. Analysis of independent colonies made it possible to separate the strains and showed that the MDR strain was a minority strain (2%). the MIRu pattern for the MDR strain was identical to that of an MDR case the patient had been in close contact with 3 years previously. The pattern for the susceptible coinfecting strain was also found in another 4 cases in the same area (years 2009, 2011 [2] and 2014), indicating that it was a circulating strain. This event was most likely a reactivation of a latent MDR strain that coincided with a recent infection by a susceptible strain. The second example was an alert of a false tB diagnosis involving 2 HIv-positive cases hospitalized at the same unit. One case (case A) accumulated 12 MtB-positive specimens whereas only 1 of 3 specimens for the other case (case B, potentially false positive) was MtB-positive. A fast MIRu-vNtR analysis (standard electrophoresis) revealed 2 different patterns, suggesting true tB in both cases. However, lack of clinical support and a final negative result for the 2 cultures in case B necessitated an in-depth analysis. MIRu-vNtR performed directly from 10 sputa from case A and subsequent capillary electrophoresis revealed the coexistence of 2 coinfecting strains: one an overrepresented strain (strain A) and another clearly a minority strain that corresponded to the strain (strain B) in the positive specimen wrongly assigned to case B. Differences in the representativity of the strains in the sequential sputa from case A were tracked, and some specimens were enriched only with one strain. The most likely explanation for this event was that the false positivity alert was resolved erroneously owing to involvement of a true-positive case with mixed infection by 2 MtB strains whose representativity differed in several samples. Clonal complexity in MtB must be borne in mind in clinical practice, even in areas of moderate incidence, to correctly interpret challenging situations. Funding: Plan Estatal I+D+I 2013/16, ISCIII (PI12/02080, 13/01207) and FEDER P166 INTERLABORATORY EVALuATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF qIAxcel ADVANCED SYSTEM FOR MIRu-VNTR TYPING OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS Alberto Trovato1, Broda Agnieszka2, Emanuele Borroni1, Vladyslav NIkolayevskyy2, Francis Drobniewski2, Daniela Maria Cirillo3 1 emerging bacterial Pathogens unit, Division of immunology, transplantation and infectious Diseases, San Raffaele Scientific Institute 2 infection and immunity Department, Medical school, imperial college london; blizard institute of cell and Molecular science, Queen Mary university of london, united Kingdom 3 emerging bacterial Pathogens unit, Division of immunology, transplantation and infectious Diseases, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, italy The 24-locus mycobacterial interspersed repetitiveunit-variable-number tandem repeat (MIRu-vNtR) genotyping is an effective and reliable standardized method in Mycobacterium tuberculosis molecular epidemiology. However, manual methodology, the most used in resource-limited settings, is by far more prone to errors and misinterpretation than the automated technique, utilizing capillary fragment separation on sequencers. Recently, the qIAxcel Advanced System (qiagen AG, Germany), a capillary electrophoresis-based technology, has been proposed as a cost-effective alternative to both manual and automated technique. Our study focused on the assessment of the accuracy and interlaboratory reproducibility of this technology. A total of 60 reference strains (1440 loci) were tested for 24-locus MIRu-vNtR both at Imperial College (London) and San Raffaele Scientific Institute (Milan) by using two slightly different run protocols, namely oM1700 and oH1700 respectively, and a common size marker (100–2500 bp).the results were then compared to reference values. The overall concordance to reference values was 98.89% for samples tested in London and 98.54% for those analysed in Milan. very similar results were reported by the two laboratories with some important differences for locus 1644 (MIRu 16) and 2165 (EtRA). Interestingly, both laboratories reported 4052 as the most problematic locus, probably as the system tends to overestimate the size of high molecular weight amplicons. Apparently, locus 960 was the only one to show very precise size estimation even over 1000 bp. Both London and Milan reported 100% concordance for fragments under 700 bp. Two different approaches were followed to improve the system performance: (i) the development of an inhouse marker, and (ii) modifications of calling tables with offset values to reflect variations in the PCR fragment mobility under denaturation conditions. The in-house marker was developed by using as reference marker a sample with pronounced stutter peaks at locus 4052 or by mixing together different amplicons. By using stutter peaks a good improvement was obtained but limited to locus 4052 itself. By putting together different fragments we didn’t obtain satisfactory results. Conversely, the introduction of modified calling tables with offset values, using the commercial size marker, showed the best results. In conclusion, the qIAxcel Advanced System is a valid alternative as automated system for genotyping M. tuberculosis. P169 DISTINCT MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS SPOLIGOTYPES-RELICTS OR INVASIVE STRAINS IN LATVIA Ilva Pole1, Girts Skenders2, Inta jansone3, Viktorija Igumnova3, janis Pjalkovskis3, Anda Nodieva4, Iveta Ozere5, Vija Riekstina2, Renate Ranka3 1 centre of tuberculosis and lung Diseases, riga east university Hospital; latvian biomedical research and study centre 2 clinic of tuberculosis and lung Diseases, riga east university Hospital, latvia 3 latvian biomedical research and study centre, riga, latvia 4 Department of infectology and Dermatology, Riga Stradiņš University, Riga, Latvia 5 clinic of tuberculosis and lung Diseases, riga east university Hospital; Department of Infectology and Dermatology, Riga Stradiņš university, riga, latvia Introduction: tuberculosis (tB) is a widespread and ancient disease in Eastern Europe. Although the epidemiological situation of TB is slightly improving every year, it is still one of the major infectious diseases that cause serious health problems. Ordinary Mt genotyping by spoligotyping method revealed that most common Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mt) isolates observed in Latvia belonged to the two main Mt lineages: East-Asian (~26%) and EuroAmerican (~60%); both are well-known in Europe and in the immediate neighborhood published in the SItvIt database. Nevertheless, among all detected genotypes a variety Mt isolates of rare or so far unspecified spoligotype patterns were observed. thus the question arises whether these Mt isolates are relicts of the last century, or they are so far unrecognized invasive entrants. The aim: of this study was to characterize and describe rare and non-published genotypes of Mt isolates obtained in Latvia. Materials and Methods: In this study, 93 Mt isolates with non-published in SItvIt database spoligopattern (SP) obtained from 2009 to 2012 in Riga and Riga district were selected. Epidemiological relationships 83 of these Mt isolates with each other as well as with all well specified Mt genotypes from Latvia were studied, and obtained data were analyzed in relation to the possible evolution of direct repeat (DR) region and similarity of RFLP patterns. Results: From 93 available and genotyped Mt isolates with non-published in SItvIt database spoligopatterns 85 were sensitive, but 8 were resistant to one to three anti-tB drugs. Within all spoligotypes studied, 43 isolates (46%) formed 11 different clusters with 2 – 11 members. Remaining 50 samples (54%) were individual with the unique spoligo and RFLP pattern. Searches of clusters of Mt genotype across the Latvia showed some small infections foci of tB outside Riga; however the true history remains unclear. Conclusions: 1. the question remains open whether the Mt strains with non-published genotypes were endemic or of the outside origin. 2. Most of observed tB genotypes were diverse, representing just a few disease`s cases. 3. Existence of spoligotype clusters requires strong epidemiological tracing. disease. M. tuberculosis isolates from 22 pairs of patients living in the same household, and first and last isolates from 8 patients with an extended period of disease were selected. Based on the hypothesis that SNP identification provides a measure of genome evolution over time, we calculated pairwise genomic differences between the respective pairs of isolates. The SNP variation detected between household contacts were greater than anticipated despite closely related IS6110 DNA fingerprints. this study highlights genomic instability during transmission and persistent disease thereby questioning whether the method used to infer transmission chains should be revised for high tuberculosis incidence settings. In this study, we highlight the difficulties of establishing thresholds to infer direct epidemiological links. Our results provide a foundation for the application of whole genome sequencing data to the elucidation of microevolution during transmission. Acknowledgments: This study was supported by the ESF/1.1.1.2.0/038 and vPP “BIoMEDICINE”. WhOLE GENOME SEquENCE OF MYCOBACTERIuM SuRICATTAE, ThE MAIN CAuSE OF TuBERCuLOSIS IN MEERkATS (SuRICATA SuRICATTA) Anzaan Dippenaar1, Sven Parsons2, julian Drewe3, Abdallah Abdallah4, Ruben van der Merwe2, keith Siame2, Alan Christoffels5, Samantha Sampson2, Nico Gey van Pittius2, Paul van helden2, Rob Warren2, Arnab Pain4 1 Faculty of Medicine and Health sciences, Division of Molecular biology and cellular biology, stellenbosch university 2 stellenbosch university 3 royal Veterinary college, london 4 King Abdullah university of technology 5 south African National bioinformatics institute P176 INVESTIGATING MICROEVOLuTION OF M. TuBERCuLOSIS DuRING TRANSMISSION Anzaan Dippenaar1, Margaretha de Vos2, Ruben van der Merwe2, Gian van der Spuy2, Rob Warren 2 , Samantha Sampson2, Paul van helden2, Arnab Pain3 1 Faculty of Medicine and Health sciences, Division of Molecular biology and cellular biology, stellenbosch university 2 stellenbosch university 3 King Abdullah university of technology Recent studies have shown that Mycobacterium tuberculosis populations infecting the host are more heterogeneous than previously considered. The phenomenon of a subpopulation of clonal variants and the impact of a transmission event on the genomic stability of the infectious M. tuberculosis population remain largely unexplored. Due to decreasing costs and unprecedented resolution, whole genome sequencing is an ideal tool to study the microevolution of M. tuberculosis; it could potentially be applied to study outbreaks in high tuberculosis burden settings where epidemiological data are hard to obtain. The study of microevolution during disease and transmission is crucial to better understand outbreak dynamics in a high tuberculosis incidence setting where multiple sources of infection exist. Here, we use whole genome sequencing to investigate microevolution in M. tuberculosis during household transmission as well as during persistent 84 P179 Tuberculosis occurs in various mammalian hosts and is caused by a wide range of Mycobacterium species. A recently described species, M. suricattae, has been reported to cause tuberculosis in meerkats (Suricata suricatta) in Southern Africa. the preliminary genetic analysis showed it to be closely related to the M. tuberculosis complex dassie bacillus. Here, we make use of whole genome sequencing to describe the genome of M. suricattae, confirming known and novel regions of difference, SNPs and IS6110 insertion sites. To better determine its evolutionary position in the phylogeny of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, we used genome wide phylogenetic analysis to show that M. suricattae clusters with the chimpanzee bacillus, isolated in West Africa. We also propose an evolutionary scenario for the M. africanum lineage 6 complex, showing the evolutionary relationship of M. africanum and chimpanzee bacillus, and the closely related members M. suricattae, dassie bacillus and M. mungi. P181 P182 hIGh-ThROuGhPuT MYCOBACTERIAL INTERSPERSED REPETITIVE uNIT–VARIABLE NuMBER TANDEM-REPEAT GENOTYPING FOR MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STuDIES Marie Gauthier1, Floriane Bidault1, Amandine Mosnier1, Nino Bablishvili2, Nestani Tukvadze2, Silaphet Somphavong3, Phimpha Paboriboune3, Oksana Ocheretina4, jean William Pape4, Glaucia Paranhos-Baccala1, jean-Luc Berland1 1 laboratoire des Pathogènes emergents (lpe), Fondation Mérieux-centre international de recherche en infectiologie (ciri) 2 National center for tuberculosis and lung Disease (Nctld) 3 centre D’infectiologie christophe Mérieux Du laos (cicml) 4 les centres Gheskio DETECTING PSEuDO-BEIjING M. TuBERCuLOSIS ISOLATES uSING TBMINER Memona Yasmin1, jérôme Azé2, Rubina Tabassum3, Sabira Tahseen4, Shahid Abbasi5, Naeem Akthar5, Riwan Iqbal6, Christophe Sola7, Guislaine Refrégier7 1 Nibge, Pieas 2 lirmm 3 Health biotechnology Division, National institute for biotechnology and Genetic engineering (Nibge), Faisalabad, Pakistan 4 National tb reference laboratory 5 Armed Forces institute of Pathology 6 Pakistan Medical research council 7 institute for integrative biology of the cell, université Paris-sud The emergence of drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (tB) represents a major public health concern. understanding the transmission routes of the disease is a key factor for its control and for the implementation of efficient interventions. Mycobacterial interspersed repetitive-unit–variablenumber tandem-repeat (MIRu-vNtR) marker typing is a well-described method for lineage identification and transmission tracking. However, the conventional manual genotyping technique is cumbersome and time-consuming and entails many risks for errors, thus hindering its implementation and dissemination. We describe here a new approach using the qIAxcel system, an automated high-throughput capillary electrophoresis system that also carries out allele calling. This automated method was assessed on 1,824 amplicons from 82 tB isolates and tested with sets of markers of 15 or 24 loci. Overall allele-calling concordance between the methods from 140 to 1,317 bp was 98.9%. DNA concentrations and repeatability and reproducibility performances showed no biases in allele calling. Furthermore, turnaround time using this automated system was reduced by 81% compared to the conventional manual agarose gel method. In sum, this new automated method facilitates MIRuvNtR genotyping and provides reliable results. therefore, it is well suited for field genotyping. the implementation of this method will help to achieve accurate and cost-effective epidemiological studies, especially in countries with a high prevalence of tB, where the high number of strains complicates the surveillance of circulating lineages and requires efficient interventions to be carried out in an urgent manner. tBminer is an on-line classification tool based on spoligotype and MIRu-vNtR data. It annotates user strains according to 3 independent and largely used taxonomies: spoligotype-derived (SItvItWEB), MIRu-vNtR-derived (MIRu-vNtRPlus), spoligotype+MIRu-vNtR-derived (tBlineage). When consensus between the 3 assignations exists, TBminer makes it explicit and proposes a new consensual taxonomy (Azé et al., 2015, submitted). Pseudo-Beijing sublineage was discovered by Fenner et al. in 2011. It is characterized by a spoligotype profile identical to bona fide Beijing but associated to a smaller deletion in the CRISPR locus. MIRuvNtR-based analysis indicates that it belongs to CAS lineage. We wanted to test the ability of TBminer to detect discordance between 24 or 15 MIRu-vNtR data and spoligotype profiles. We used a convenient sample from Pakistan, a country known to harbor a large diversity of CAS isolates. DNA was extracted by a CTAB procedure or by thermolysis. We performed 43-spacers Luminex spoligotyping and 24 MIRuvNtR genotyping. out of 225 isolates with complete genotypes, 137 isolates carried a CAS spoligotype profile (61%) and 8 isolates had a Beijing spoligotype profile (4%). other isolates were classified as Euro-american (15%), EAI (5%) or could not be classified by SItvItWEB (15%). Among the 8 potential “Beijing” isolates, 6 showed a 24 and a 15MIRu-vNtR patterns typical of Beijing lineage as analyzed independently both by TBminer (tool predicting MIRu-vNtRplus classification) and by MIRu-vNtRplus itself. In contrast, 2 other isolates were classified by both tools as CAS. these two isolates carried 2 copies of ETR-C repetition instead of 4 as in Beijing isolates, a feature present in Fenner et al. first Pseudo-Beijing isolates. tBminer was thus able to provide a reliable annotation for these isolates. Altogether, we confirmed that in countries with high CAS prevalence, some isolates carrying a Beijing spoligotype may in fact be CAS isolates. In addition, 85 we show that tBminer is an efficient tool to detect discordance between standard classifications’ signatures. The ease of use of TBminer should help surveillance epidemiologists and clinical microbiologists to analyze more efficiently tB genetic diversity in their countries. P97 DECIPhERING TuBERCuLOSIS DYNAMICS IN EAST GREENLAND: GENOME BASED MOLECuLAR EPIDEMIOLOGY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS IN A hIGh INCIDENCE, LOW DIVERSITY SETTING karen Bjorn-Mortensen1, Aase Bengaard Andersen2, karin Ladefoged3, Bolette Soborg4, Anders koch4, Troels Lillebaek5, Thomas kohl6, Stefan Niemann6 1 Department of epidemiology research, international reference laboratory of Mycobacteriology,statens serum institut, copenhagen; Greenlands center of Health research, Nuuk, Greenland 2 Department of infectious Diseases, copenhagen university Hospital and university of southern Denmark, odense, Denmark 3 Department of internal Medicine, Queen ingrid’s Hospital, Nuuk 4 Department of epidemiology research, statens serum institut, copenhagen, Denmark 5 statens serum institut 6 Molecular Mycobacteriology, research center borstel, German center for infection research, borstel, Germany Introduction: tuberculosis (tB) is again a major health problem in Greenland. TB outbreaks often occur in isolated settings with complex social networks revealed by contact tracing. This complexity makes it difficult to identify cases of active Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) transmission in order to confine the outbreaks. TB incidence in the isolated East Greenland has increased dramatically in recent years to approximately 1,000 notified tB cases per 100,000 inhabitants and approximately 40% of the East Greenlandic population is infected with Mtb. Since 2004, all culture-positive tB samples from East Greenland have been genotyped with mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number of tandem repeats (MIRu-vNtR). Available data showed that almost all strains were from two major clusters with very similar MIRu-vNtR genotypes, making it difficult to distinguish new from old cases. Objective: The study aimed to characterize transmission patterns in a population-wide whole genome sequencing (WGS) study including all culture-positive cases within a 21-year period. The main objective was to determine to what extend WGS contributes to the understanding of an outbreak in a high tB incidence, low diversity setting. 86 Methods: using Illumina Nextera xt library preparation kits and the NextSeq500 next generation sequencing platform, we performed WGS of 182 isolates (98% of culture-positive cases). After reference mapping to the H37Rv genome, detected variants were combined to yield a set of phylogenetically informative single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) positions. Results: A maximum parsimony tree based on these positions revealed the same pattern as seen with MIRu-vNtR, but with a much higher resolution. Employing a maximum distance of 12 SNPs between isolates, four groups were created, which overall correlated well with the MIRu-vNtR clustering. Both time and place of notification correlated well with WGS data, and transmission links suggested by WGS fit well with expansion over time. Also, epidemiological data and WGS data together suggest a very clear geographical distinction of clones. overall, WGS based genotyping describes in detail the longitudinal transmission pattern of tuberculosis in an isolated, high incidence, low variance setting. therefore, even among isolates with the same, or almost identical, MIRu-vNtR type in a high incidence setting, WGS performs well and offers a much higher resolution than previously used genotyping methods. 2013. Based on Spoligotyping, 107 regional strains were grouped into 18 clusters (%97,3) and 3 strains were observed as orphan (% 2,7). t1 cluster was included the large number of strains with 53 samples (%48,2). Clonality analysis demonstrated that there were no clonal relations between these strains. Although variable repeat numbers in clusters which determined with IS6110-RFLP could further enhance the descriminative power, this method did not produce significant results when used alone. As a result of that, spoligotyping and 15 loci MIRu-vNtR were more effective when used together for identification of species, detection of clonal relatives and collecting data for surveillance studies. In conclusion, incidence rate of MDR-tB strains which do not show clonal relations increases in Cukurova Region of turkey. For this reason to control and treat new MDR-tB strains, combining of these three methods which have high discriminative power should be use after diagnosis. keywords: IS6110, MIRu-vNtR, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Spoligotyping genotype families causing tB in Pará. MtB isolates were obtained from clinical specimens collected between 1998 and 2010 at the Evandro Chagas Institute, Belém do Pará, Brazil. the DNA extraction and spoligotyping were performed, as previously described, according to standard protocols. Among the 980 samples, a total of 249 distinct spoligopatterns were observed. of these, 6.4% (63) corresponded to orphan patterns, while 93.5% (917) belonged to 186 shared-types (SIts). Sixty-one newly created SIts were also found (4063 to 4090). the main families found in this study were LAM (41%; 402), t (18,9%; 185), Haarlem (12,9%; 124) and East African Indian - EAI (9.9%; 97), followed by x (8.4%; 92), unknown (5.7%; 56), Manu (1.8%; 18), S (0.9%; 9), Central Asian - CAS (0.6%; 6) and ural (0.1%; 1). the predominant lineages LAM, t and Haarlem have been previously well described in Brazil. this study, however, shows an emergence of EAI lineage, which comes originally from India and Africa. It thereby provides new insight into the population structure of MtB isolates in Pará over a 12-year period. P200 P204 P195 SPOLIGOTYPES OF Mycobacterium tuberculosis ISOLATES FROM PATIENTS RESIDENTS IN STATE OF PARá, BRAZIL Emilyn Conceição1, Maria Luiza Lopes2, Ismari Perini Furlaneto3, harrison Gomes Magdinier4, Philip Noel Suffys4, Nalin Rastogi5, David Couvin5, Rafael Silva Duarte6, karla Valéria Batista Lima7 1 evandro chagas institute Pará, institut de biologie intégrative de la cellule, Federal university of rio de Janeiro 2 evandro chagas institute 3 state university of Pará 4 oswald cruz Foundation 5 Pasteur institute 6 Federal university of rio de Janeiro 7 evandro chagas institute, state university of Pará MISCLASSIFICATION BY SPOLIGOTYPING: MuLTI-DRuG RESISTANT MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS OF ThE LATIN AMERICAN MEDITERANEAN LINEAGE WRONGLY IDENTIFIED AS MYCOBACTERIuM PINNIPEDII (ST863) Elis R. Dalla Costa1*, Sidra E. G. Vasconcelos2*, Leonardo Esteves3, harrison M. Gomes3, Lia L. Gomes Fiocruz3, Pedro E. A. Silva4, joão Perdigão5, Miguel Viveiros5, Gisela unis6, Nalin Rastogi7, Maria Lucia R. Rossetti3, Philip Noel Suffys3 1 Fundação estadual de Produção e Pesquisa em saúde – Fepps, Porto Alegre 2laboratório de biologia Molecular Aplicada A Microbactérias, instituto oswaldo cruz, Fiocruz, rio de Janeiro 3 Fundação estadual de Produção e Pesquisa em saúde – Fepps, Porto Alegre; universidade luterana Do brasil (ulbra/rs) 4 universidade Federal Do rio Grande, rio Grande Do sul 5 centro de Patogénese Molecular, uria, Faculdade de Farmácia Da universidade de lisboa 6 Hospital sanatório Partenon (Hsp), Porto Alegre 7 Who supranational tb reference laboratory, institut Pasteur de la Guadeloupe, Abymes, Guadeloupe *contributed equally We recently detected one of the spoligotypes, SIt863, characteristic for Mycobacterium pinnipedii, a species of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex (MtC), in sputum sample from 10 pulmonary tuberculosis cases residents of Porto Alegre, South Brazil. Because this species is rarely encountered in humans, we further COMPARISON OF IS6110, MIRu-VNTR AND SPOLIGOTYPING METhODS WhICh ARE uSED FOR ASSOCIATING OF PhYLOGENETIC RELATIONS OF MuLTI DRuG RESISTANT (MDR) MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS ISOLATES Gulfer Yakici1, Begum kayar2, Taylan Bozok1, Togrul Nagiyev1, Mahdi Marzi1, Emel Yarar1, Fatih koksal1 1 Department of Medical Microbiology, Medical Faculty, cukurova university, Adana, turkey 2 tropical Disease research and Application center, cukurova university, Adana, turkey High incidence of tuberculosis in developed and developing countries and appearing of strains with resistance to two major drugs (multi drug resistant) in addition to two minor drugs (extensively drug resistant) and tendency to spread of beijing strains which do not response to anti-tuberculosis treatment in all around the world are the most important handicaps of tuberculosis control programmes. This global problem can be exceed by monitoring M. tuberculosis (MtB) strains with more sensitive and more discriminative molecular epidemiologic methods. In this study we aimed to find contribution of combining three methods which have high discriminative power for epidemiologic studies in addition to research relation between MDR-tB strains with IS6110-RFLP, 15 loci MIRu-vNtR and spoligotyping. We detected 110 MDR-tB strains from 22.619 clinical metarials which were sent to Tropical Disease Center Region tuberculosis Laboratory between june 2011- May tuberculosis (tB) is an infectious disease that is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtB). Although highly effective treatment schemes have been available for decades, tB remains a major global health problem, especially in the 22 countries given high priority due to their high load of TB cases (High-Burden Countries - HBCs) since 2000. Brazil was ranked 17th among these in 2013. Molecular typing of strains of MtB has improved understanding of TB epidemiology and opened new avenues for study - ones where transmission dynamics meet with classical epidemiological approaches. One technique, spoligotyping, is an especially useful tool for the classification of strains of MtB. By performing spoligotyping on a large number of MtB clinical isolates, this study aimed to determine the major 87 characterized these isolates by additional genotyping including 24 MIRu-vNtR typing, verification of tbD1, RD9 and RDRio status, sequencing of pks15/1, insertion of IS6110 at a specific locus for M. tuberculosis lineage (Latin American Mediterranean/LAM) and the presence of the SNP fbpC103. Combined analysis of all these markers revealed that the isolates are in fact a M. tuberculosis (LAM) and this was confirmed by whole genome sequencing of three of the isolates and “bar code” based identification. Most of these isolates showed to be multi-drug resistant so were submitted to partial sequencing of genes rpoA, rpoB, rpoC, katG and inhA. Eight isolates (80%) showed the presence of the AGC-ACC mutation at codon 315 of katG (Serthr) and one isolate (10%) exhibited a substitution of T-G at -17 position of inhA. Interestingly, eight of the MDR isolates also presented an undescribed insertion of 12 nucleotides (CCA GAA CAA CCC) at codon 516 of rpoB. No compensatory mutations were observed in the genes rpoA and rpoC. This is the first report on M. tuberculosis LAM family with a convergent spoligotype characteristic for M. pinnipedii. Because the M. pinnipedi spoligotypes are observed in spoligotype databases with a certain frequency, care must be taken when concluding on the identity of isolates of the M. tuberculosis complex (MtC) based on a single genetic marker. P212 IDENTIFICATION OF NON-TuBERCuLOuS MYCOBACTERIA SPECIES IN ROuTINE CLINICAL PRACTICE uSING MALDI-TOF MASS SPECTROMETRY Eva Sodja1, Nada Šorli Peranović1, Helena Ribič2, Manca Žolnir-Dovč1 1 laboratory for Mycobacteria, university clinic of respiratory and Allergic Diseases Golnik 2 environment and Food; centre for Medical Microbiology, National laboratory of Health Background: Significant number of new mycobacteria species is described each year. therefore, there is an urgent need for new methodologies to rapidly identify clinically relevant non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NtM) species isolated from clinical samples. Matrix-assisted laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-toF MS) has been recently proven to effectively identify mycobacteria directly from cultures. The aim of our study was to compare MALDI-toF MS Biotyper system (Bruker Daltonics, Bremen, Germany) to Geno type Mycobaterium CM/ AS (GtM; Hain Lifescience, Nehren, Germany) and to evaluate its use in our routine laboratory practice. Methods: A total of 34 NtM isolates from various clinical materials were tested in this study. NtM subcultures grown on solid media (Middlebrook 7H10 or Löwenstein-jensen) were initially identified with GtM assays. For MALDI-toF MS analysis, the NtM colonies were inactivated by heating up 88 to 100°C and 0.5mm zirconia/silicate beads were used for mechanical disruption, as recommended by Bruker Daltonics. Protein extraction was elicited with acetonitrile and fromic acid. The samples were pipetted onto MALDI target plate and identified with Bruker MALDI Biotyper using automatic spectral acquisition and Bruker Mycobacteria Library 1.0. Results: All mycobacterial isolates were identified using GtM as NtM of which 5 were M. avium, 5 M. chelone, 5 M. xenopi, 4 M. gordonae, 4 M. fortuitum, 2 M. intracellulare, 1 M. interjectum, 2 M. kansasii, 4 M. abscessus and 2 M. fortuitum 2/M. mageritense. The Bruker mycobacteria library gave a spectral scores higher than 1.7 for 30 (88.2%) NtM isolates and 28 (93.3%) of these isolates were correctly identified to the species level when compared with the GtM. the remaining 4 (11.8%) NtM isolates yielded in spectral scores lower than 1.7 (3) or no spectra were found (1) during MALDI toF analysis. two (5.9%) isolates identified as M. fortuitum2/M. mageritense with GtM were identified as M. senegalense using mycobacteria library (scores higher than 2.0) and will be subjected to 16S rRNA sequencing. Conclusion: According to our data, MADLI-toF MS has potential for identifying mycobacteria in the clinical laboratory practice, by reducing identification turnaround time and laboratory costs. Nevertheless, further work to optimize limiting factors (type of medium used for mycobacteria growth, quantity and age of the mycobacteria culture, maycobacteria library with higher number of species) is still crucial. P213 DRuG SuSCEPTIBILITY PROFILE AND MOLECuLAR TYPING OF PREDOMINANT SINGLE NuCLEOTIDE POLYMORPhISM (SNP) CLuSTER GROuPS IN DELhI Mandira Varma-Basil1, kushal Garima1, Anshika Narang1, Soumitesh Chakravorty2, Naresh kumar1, Shraddha Podwal1, Astha Giri1, Thierry Zozio3, David Couvin3, Stefan Niemann4, Nalin Rastogi3, David Alland2, Mridula Bose1 1 Vallabhbhai Patel chest institute, Dept. of Microbiology, university of Delhi 2 Department of Medicine, New Jersey Medical school, rutgers university 3 tuberculosis and Mycobacteria unit; Who supranational tuberculosis reference laboratory, institut Pasteur de la Guadeloupe 4 Molecular Mycobacteriology, research center borstel, German center for infection research, borstel, Germany Phylogenetic analysis of M. tuberculosis populations reveals associations between lineages that may have implications in determining the effectiveness of Tuberculosis control programs. Several attempts have been made to associate the differences in strains of M. tuberculosis to variations in the clinical outcome of the disease and to drug resistance. We genotyped 139 clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis obtained from patients of pulmonary tuberculosis and attending a referral center for patients with respiratory diseases in Delhi, India. the isolates were analyzed using nine Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers. the isolates were also subjected to spoligotyping and MIRu-vNtR typing; and the results correlated with their drug susceptibility profile. The most predominant cluster was SNP cluster group (SCG) 3a observed in 56% (n=78) of the isolates. Majority (50%) of the isolates in SCG 3a were drug susceptible, while 9% (n=7) were multidrug resistant (MDR). the ancestral cluster SCG 1 was observed in 18% (n=25) of the isolates. Multidrug resistance was observed in 8% (n=2) of these isolates while 40% (n=10) of the isolates were drug susceptible. SCG 2 formed 6.2% (n=9) of the isolates and 44% (n=4) of these were MDR. Spoligotyping subdivided the strains into 45 shared types (n=125) and 14 orphan strains. The orphan strains were mostly associated with SCG 3a or SCG 1, reflecting the principal SCGs found in the Indian population. SCG 1 and SCG 2 spoligotypes were concordant with the East African Indian and Beijing families respectively. Central Asian (CAS) clade and its sublineages were predominantly associated with SCG 3a, however a few strains (n=3) were also observed to be SCG 3b. No consistent association was seen between the SCGs and other spoligotypes such as Harlem, t and x clades. Surprisingly, the 15 loci MIRu-vNtR typing revealed all isolates to be unique. In conclusion, though our study revealed the preponderance of SCG 1 and 3a in the M. tuberculosis population circulating the region, the diversity of strains highlights the changes occurring within lineages and reemphasizes the importance of cluster investigations. P219 STuDYING ThE METABOLIC ACTIVITY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS ThROuGh A NEW RESAZuRIN REDuCTION BASED ASSAY Carla Silva1, joao Perdigao2, Luísa jordão3, Isabel Portugal1 1 imed.ulisboa – instituto de investigação Do Medicamento, Faculdade de Farmácia, universidade de lisboa 2 uria, centro de Patogénese Molecular, Faculdade de Farmácia Da universidade de lisboa, Portugal 3 Departamento de Doenças infeciosas, instituto Nacional de saúde Dr. ricardo Jorge Lately, several approaches have been performed to study the biological aspects of the mycobacterial metabolism and elucidate some bacterial strategies to survive to host responses, but little is known about mycobacterial adaptation to adverse environmental conditions. In this study we developed a simple and rapid method to evaluate the metabolic rate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) strains in liquid culture media, based on the resazurin reduction kinetics. We tested four mycobacterial growth conditions: physiological (pH 6.7), acidic (pH 5.5 and pH 4.5) and anaerobic; the avirulent strain M. tuberculosis H37Ra was cultured until log phase, and 3 different bacterial concentrations (108, 106 and 105 CFu/ml) were inoculated in triplicate, and incubated at 37ºC with 5% Co2 atmosphere. After inoculation, 20µl of resazurin 0,01% were added, and the indicated optical density was measured at several time-points (0h, 6h and 24h). this procedure was repeated three days after the inoculation, concluding a 5 day period of incubation. CFu counting was performed at the time of inoculation, and at the end of experience for each condition. Globally, our results show an increasing resazurin reduction curve dependent on the normal growth curve of viable bacteria. However, after a three day incubation period the percentage of resazurin reduction kinetics was shown to be linear only for cultures inoculated with 106 CFu/ml. this pattern was also observed under acidic and anaerobic conditions. The method was found to be reproducible with low standard deviations. thus, we selected the 106 CFu/ ml as the best bacterial inoculum concentration for this assay. Afterwards, we analysed the growth curve of 106 CFu/ml culture for each conditions, and CFu counting as well. Although the H37Ra strain has the capability to grow in all conditions tested, which was confirmed by CFu counting, it was possible to distinguish the rate of resazurin reduction across the different environments. As expected, a smaller number of CFu/ml was obtained in acidic conditions when compared to anaerobic and aerobic conditions. taking into account these results, we believe that the methodology here presented holds potential for mycobacterial metabolic studies concerning different strain physiology. P220 IDENTIFICATION OF ThE BEST MIRu-VNTR SET TEChNIquE FOR MDR-TB AND xDR-TB SuRVEILLANCE IN LISBON, PORTuGAL Carla Silva1, joao Perdigao2, Luisa jordao3, Isabel Portugal1 1 imed.ulisboa – instituto de investigação Do Medicamento, Faculdade de Farmácia, universidade de lisboa 2 uria, centro de Patogénese Molecular, Faculdade de Farmácia Da universidade de lisboa, Portugal 3 Departamento de Doenças infeciosas, instituto Nacional de saúde Dr. ricardo Jorge 89 Multidrug and extensively drug resistance tuberculosis (MDR/xDR-tB) remains a serious threat to tB control worldwide. Portugal registers a high number of MDR-tB and xDR-tB cases particularly in Lisbon, the capital city. the majority of MDR- and xDR-tB cases that circulates in Lisbon belongs to either one of two groups of genetically close strains, known as Lisboa family and q1 cluster. these strains are responsible for more than 80% of MDR-tB cases; 50% of which are also xDR-tB (2008). Given the high prevalence and considering the drug resistant profile of such strains, we aimed to investigate the most discriminatory technique for MDR- and xDR-tB surveillance. For this purpose, 74 clinical Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates collected in Lisbon Health Region were genotyped by 12, 15 and 24-loci Mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units – variable number of tandem repeats (MIRu-vNtR). twenty-two isolates were susceptible and 54 were resistant to at least one drug (34 MDR-tB, 15 of which were xDR-tB). We verified that MIRu-vNtR analysis based on 12, 15 and 24 loci sets allowed the clustering of 22 (66,7%), 20 (60,6%) and 17 (51,5%) MDR-tB isolates; 13 (92,9%), 12 (85,7%) and 11 (78,6%) of these were also xDR-tB, respectively. It was also noticed that, as the number of analysed loci increased, the Lisboa3 and q1 isolates that differ by one or two loci were gradually excluded from the clusters. In order to evaluate the clustering of MDR-tB and xDR-tB isolates, we analysed the discriminatory power of all MIRu-vNtR sets, applying the Simpson’s Diversity Index. As expected, the 24 loci set analysis presented the highest discriminatory index (D) in comparison with both 12 and 15 loci sets (DMIRu 24=0,971; DMIRu =0,964; DMIRu 12=0,931). the small difference 15 observed between DMIRu 15 and DMIRu 24, leads to the conclusion that 15 loci MIRu-vNtR is a powerful discriminatory tool. Interestingly, although with a lower discriminatory power, the 12-loci MIRu-vNtR analysis was enough to cluster the xDR-tB isolates into two major clusters, Lisboa3 and q1 cluster, corresponding to 92,9% of xDR-tB cases in Lisbon Health Region. Despite having a lower discriminatory power, we conclude that, in such settings, 15 loci MIRu-vNtR has a sufficient discriminatory power for MDR-tB and xDR-tB surveillance and that 12 loci MIRu-vNtR is a useful method to ascertain a common origin between drug resistant isolates that have undergone subsequent genetic diversification. P221 DRuG RESISTANCE AND GENETIC DIVERSITY OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS IN LuANDA, ANGOLA: A MOLECuLAR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE joao Perdigao1, Sofia Clemente2, jorge Ramos3, Pedro Masakidi2, Diana Machado3, Carla Silva4, Isabel Couto3, Miguel Viveiros3, Nuno Taveira5, 90 Isabel Portugal4 1 uria, centro de Patogénese Molecular, Faculdade de Farmácia Da universidade de lisboa, Portugal 2 serviço de Doenças infecciosas, Hospital Da Divina Providência 3 Grupo de Micobactérias, unidade de Microbiologia Médica, instituto de Higiene e Medicina tropical de lisboa, universidade Nova de lisboa 4 imed.ulisboa – instituto de investigação Do Medicamento, Faculdade de Farmácia, universidade de lisboa 5 imed.ulisboa – instituto de investigação Do Medicamento, Faculdade de Farmácia, universidade de lisboa; centro de investigação interdisciplinar egas Moniz, instituto superior de ciências Da saúde egas Moniz, Monte de caparica tuberculosis (tB) poses a serious public health problem in Angola. The latest estimates from the World Health Organization point to the occurrence of 69 000 new cases in 2013 and an incidence rate of 320 cases per 100 000 habitants in the same period. Furthermore, no surveillance data on drug resistance is available and nothing is known regarding the genetic diversity and population structure of circulating Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) strains. Its capital city, Luanda, harbours approximately 33.7% of the country’s population and is responsible for onethird of the TB cases nationwide. In the present study we have analysed 77 M. tuberculosis isolates recovered from sputum samples from the same number of patients. The patients involved in the study were clinically diagnosed with TB and positive for sputum smear acid fast bacilli in Hospital da Divina Providência, Luanda. All isolates were genotyped by Spoligotyping and 24-loci Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive unit – variable Number of tandem Repeats (MIRu-vNtR). Firstline drug susceptibility testing was performed by the standard BACtEC 960 MGIt procedure. We have detected 29 different spoligotype profiles corresponding to 21 different Shared International types (SIt) and 8 orphan profiles. SIt 42 (Latin American Mediterranean, LAM9) was the most prevalent SIt found (n=15, 19.5%) followed by SIt 53 (t1; n=11, 14.3%). overall, the M. tuberculosis population structure in this sample was dominated by LAM (57.1%) and t (32.5%) strains. twelve and 24-loci MIRu-vNtR analysis revealed that 47 (15 clusters) and 11 (4 clusters) isolates were clustered, respectively. Drug susceptibility data showed that 17 (21.1%) of the 77 clinical isolates were resistant to one or more antibacillary drugs and from these, 3 (3.9%) were multidrug resistant (MDR). Drug resistant isolates were found across distinct clades and MIRu-vNtR clusters although the largest MIRu-vNtR cluster detected was comprised by 3/5 drug resistant isolates, including one MDR isolate In conclusion, this study has demonstrated a high predominance of LAM strains circulating in Luanda and the presence of recent transmission events. The genetic diversity found suggests the presence of multiple and complex TB transmission chains masked by recent genetic diversification. the high rate of MDR-tB found in this sample has major public health implications and highlights the need of further studies specifically focused on MDR-tB transmission. P223 that were shared with other Manila family clusters. one of these clusters had five cases, composed of four Micronesians and one uS born case, while the other cluster had six cases including two cases born in the Marshall Islands, two Filipinos, one Micronesian and a uS case. Periodic evaluation of genotyping information has revealed possible transmission clusters and highlighted the diversity of tuberculosis cases in Hawaii. Linking genotypes to case data to determine potential epidemiologic links is essential as we move into whole genome sequencing of representatives of these clusters, currently in progress. CLuSTER IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS OF CLINICAL MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS ISOLATES IN ThE STATE OF hAWAII kent koster, Lishi qian, Caitlin Flores, Terry Weber, Richard Brostrom, jeffrey Foster, james Douglas university of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hi california state Dept. of Health, richmond, cA Hawaii state Dept. of Health, Honolulu, Hi university of New Hampshire, Durham, NH Hawaii’s tuberculosis incidence rates are perennially among the highest in the united States. Immigration from the Western Pacific and Asia over the last decade continues to introduce a steady supply of new tuberculosis cases into the state, an average of 121 cases per year with an increase to over 136 cases this past year. This is in contrast to the declining number of cases in the uS over the same period. As a result of this importation, distinguishing locally transmitted tuberculosis cases from cases brought into the state has been difficult when using traditional epidemiological methods. In this study, we analyzed data covering 439 isolates collected by the Hawaii State Department of Health from 2004 to 2013 to identify potential transmission clusters. Genetic clusters were identified using spoligotyping and MIRu-vNtR fingerprinting methods. Out of twenty genetic clusters consisting of three or more isolates, we identified six major fully fingerprinted clusters that included cases at least three years apart. of these, two clusters were composed of isolates from the Beijing family and four clusters from the Manila family. one Beijing family cluster was composed of seven isolates and consisted primarily of uS-born Micronesian males age 15-24, while the other had eleven isolates and consisted primarily of young to middle-aged people of Pacific Islander descent, but also included two North Korean-born women. Of the largest Manila family clusters, one had 23 isolates with six similar spoligotype patterns, while the other had 24 isolates with three similar spoligotype patterns. Both larger Manila family clusters were composed of persons born in the Philippines and covered a broad age range, with the 45-64 and 65+ age ranges being most common. two more Manila family clusters were tentatively identified by their MIRu loci 1-12 patterns 91 TOWARDS TB ELIMINATION P127 ANALYTICAL SENSITIVITY (LIMIT OF DETECTION), ANALYTICAL REACTIVITY (INCLuSIVITY) AND ANALYTICAL SPECIFICITY (CROSS-REACTIVITY) OF ThE BD MAx MDR-TB ASSAY FOR ThE DETECTION OF MYCOBACTERIuM TuBERCuLOSIS COMPLEx AND RIFAMPICIN AND ISONIAZID RESISTANCE Ira Ashman1, Eliza Alexander1, Ashley Anderson1, kalola Andrews1, kelley Bryan-McNeal1, krystal hamlet1, jackie harris1, jeffry Leitch1, Stephanie Suit1, Michael Porter1 1 becton Dickinson sensitivity of the assay was found to be less than 50 cfu/mL-sputa for M. tuberculosis detection and less than 250 cfu/mL-sputa for rifampicin and isoniazid resistance detection. The assay successfully detected all five M. tuberculosis complex organisms tested. There was no detectable cross-reactivity with any of the five NtMs. the BD MAxtM MDR-tB assay is currently under development and not available for sale or use. Tuberculosis is a deadly infectious disease and continues to remain one of the world’s top health challenges. Rapid and accurate detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and drug resistance is of paramount importance to appropriately identify and treat patients suffering with the disease, reduce the death rate and stop the spread of TB. the BD MAxtM MDR-tB assay is an automated, qualitative test that allows for the direct detection of M. tuberculosis complex and identification of genetic mutations correlated with rifampicin (RIF) and isoniazid (INH) resistance from raw (unprocessed) and NALC/ NaoH-treated (processed) clinical sputum samples. the assay is designed for use on the BD MAxtM System, which offers true walk-away automation by incorporating sample lysis, extraction, amplification and detection all in one system. Analytical sensitivity of the assay for both M. tuberculosis complex detection and mutant discrimination was determined using spiked negative sputa. BD MAxtM MDR-tB analytical sensitivity for the detection of M. tuberculosis complex was evaluated using the H37Rv strain. Mutant discrimination was assessed using five clinical isolates. Mutant genotypes were determined by Sanger sequencing and drug-resistant phenotypes were determined by BACtEC MGIt 960 culture. Analytical sensitivity for the identification of a RIF mono-resist strain was evaluated using a clinical isolate with a His526Tyr substitution in rpob, while analytical sensitivity for the identification of an INH mono-resistant strain was evaluated using a clinical isolate with a Ser315Thr substitution in katG. Analytical sensitivity for detection of multi-drug resistant strains was evaluated using three isolates with mutations in both rpob and katG genes; namely, Ser531Leu/ Ser315thr, His526Asp/Ser315thr and Gln513Lys/ Ser315 rpob/katG mutants. Analytical inclusivity, specificity, and cross-reactivity were verified for five M. tuberculosis complex organisms and five nontuberculous mycobacteria (NtMs). Analytical 92 93 AUTHOR INDEX Abbasi, Shahid 25, 85 Abdallah, Abdallah 25, 84 Abdurrahman, Saddiq T. 24, 81 Abid, Mohammed 9, 14, 34 Afsar, Ilhan 18, 21, 52, 66-67 Ağir, Ismail 22, 71 Agnieszka, Broda 25, 83 Agonafir, Mulualem 22, 24, 72, 81 Aguilar Ayala, Diana Angelica 11, 16, 20, 47, 62 Ait Benhassou, Hassan 9, 14, 34 Akgun, Sadık 22, 71 Aklilu, Abiy 21, 66 Akthar, Naeem 25, 85 Alabi, Abraham 10, 15, 41 Aleksandrova, Natalia 22, 72 Alexander, Eliza 27, 92 Alexandru, Sofia 10, 15, 39 Al-Hajoj Al-Nakhli, Sahal 24, 80 Alland, David 26, 88 Alvarez Figueroa, Maria 12, 17, 22, 50, 72 Alvarez-Maya, Ikuri 24, 78 Ameni, Gobena 18, 53 Amzazi, Saaïd 9, 14, 34 Anderson, Ashley 27, 92 Andrews, Kalola 27, 92 Andries, Koen 20, 62 Anthony, Richard 10-11, 15, 38-39 Anzola, JM 23, 76 Ares, Miguel Angel 23, 75, 76 Aseffa, Abraham 11, 16, 43 Ashman, Ira 27, 92 Aspindzelashvili, Rusudan 10, 15, 38 Atilgan, Adnan 19, 59 Augustynowicz Kopeć, Ewa 18, 24, 54, 80 Azé, Jérôme 25, 85 Bablishvili, Nino 10, 15, 25, 38, 85 Balabanova, Yanina 12, 17, 48 Baldan, Rossella 12, 17, 51 Barilo, Valentina 12, 17, 50 Baskin, Huseyin 21, 67 Batista Lima, Karla Valéria 26, 87 Battaglia, Simone 11, 16, 45 Baumane, Margarita 24, 79 Baumanis, Viesturs 10, 15, 24, 38, 79 Bauskenieks, Matiss 10, 15, 24, 38, 79 Beau de Rochars, Madsen 19, 59 Beckert, Patrick 9-10, 14-15, 36, 41 Belén Orandoni, Maria 20, 63 Beltrán, Magda 22, 69-70 Bengaard Andersen, Aase 25, 86 Benić, Miroslav Benić 20, 63 Benitez-Capistros, Ricardo 11, 16, 44 Bentaleb, El Mehdi 9, 14, 34 Berg, Stefan 11, 16, 43 Bergval, Indra 10, 15, 38 94 Berland, Jean-Luc 25, 85 Bidault, Floriane 25, 85 Biyé Ondó, Lucía 9, 14, 36 Bjorn-Mortensen, Karen 25, 86 Blanco, Silvia 21-22, 24, 66, 72, 81 Blom, Jochen 21, 64 Bobrikova, Olga 24, 79 Boehme, Catharina 9, 13, 30 Bonnet, Maryline 10, 15, 41 Bonura, Celestino 11, 16, 43 Bordi, Eugenio 21, 68 Borek, Anna 24, 80 Borkowska, Dagmara 24, 80 Borrell, Sonia 30 Borroni, Emanuele 9, 11, 14, 16, 25, 35, 45, 83 Bose, Mridula 19, 26, 59, 88 Bouza,Emilio 9, 14, 25, 36, 82 Bozok, Taylan 19, 21, 26, 57, 59, 65, 86 Brandao, Angela 18, 53 Bruske, Ellen 10, 15, 41 Bryan-McNeal, Kelley 27, 92 Brzezińska, Sylwia 18, 54 Bull, Tim 22, 68 Bustos, JR 23, 76 Butera , Ornella 21, 68 Cabibbe, Andrea Maurizio 9, 11, 14, 16, 35, 36, 45 Cambau, Emmanuelle 8 Campana, Silvia 12, 17, 51 Cariani, Lisa 12, 17, 51 Carmen Menendez, Maria 23, 76 Castañeda-Casimiro, Jessica 23, 73 Castellvi, Josep 9, 14, 34 Catanzaro, Antonino 10, 15, 29, 39 Ceyhan, Ismail 23, 74 Chaburte, Chala 21, 66 Chakravorty, Soumitesh 26, 88 Chesov, Dumitru 10, 15, 39 Christianson, Sara 18, 52 Christoffels, Alan 25, 84 Cirillo, Daniela Maria 5, 8-9, 11, 12-14, 16, 17, 21, 25, 28, 35-36, 45, 51, 67, 83 Clemente, Sofia 26, 90 Cnockaert, Margo 20, 63 Coeck, Nele 19, 56, 58 Comas, Iñaki 9, 11, 14, 16, 36, 43 Conceição, Emilyn 26, 87 Couppié, Pierre 12, 17, 51 Couto, Isabel 26, 90 Couvin, David 12, 17, 26, 51, 87-88 Cox, Helen 30 Crudu, Valeriu 10, 15, 29, 39 Cuevas, Luis 22, 24, 72, 81 Cvetnić, Luka 20, 63 Cvetnić, Željko 20, 63 Cynamon, Michael 20, 61 Dalla Costa, Elis R. 26, 87 Datiko, Daniel 22, 24, 72, 81 David, Suzana 12 De Beer, Jessica 10, 15, 16, 45, 38 De Coninck, Dieter 11, 16, 47 De Haas, P. 16, 45 De Jong, Bouke C. 10, 15, 19, 41, 56, 58 De Keijzer, Jeroen 11, 16, 45 De Ru, A. 16, 45 De Viedma, Darío García 9, 12, 14, 25, 36, 82 De Vos, Margaretha 25, 84 Dedkov, Vladimir 22, 72 Deforce, Dieter 11, 16, 47 Del Portillo, P 9, 23, 76 Demirci, Mustafa 18, 52 Den Hertog, Alice 10, 15, 39 Di Caro, Antonino 21, 68 Dippenaar, Anzaan 25, 84 Dogonadze, Marine 23, 76 Dolinger, David 21, 67 Domente, Liliana 10, 15, 39 Dominguez, Jose 19, 22, 24, 56, 72, 81 Drewe, Julian 25, 84 Drobniewski, Francis 12, 17, 25, 48, 83 Dufera, Boja 21, 66 Duvnjak, Sanja 20, 63 Dyakova, Marina 23, 75 Eckelt, Elke 12, 17, 48 Engelthaler, Dave 8, 13 Erdoğdu, H.İbrahim 22, 71 Ertürk, Şükrü Mehmet 22, 71 Esmedlyaeva, Diljara 23, 75 Esteves, Leonardo 26, 87 Estrada Parra, Sergio 23, 73 Estrada-García, Iris 23, 73 Eyene, Juan 9, 14, 36 Fabio, Anna 18, 54 Felder, Marius 20, 62 Feleke, Abenezer 21, 66 Fellenberg, Kurt 9, 14, 36 Feres Saad, Maria Helena 19, 56 Ferrazoli, Lucilaine 18, 53 Feuerriegel, Silke 9, 14, 30, 36 Fitzgibbon, Margaret 23, 73 Forbicini, Giulia 18, 54 Francisco-Cruz, Alejandro 23, 73 Frank, Matthias 10, 15, 41 Frascaro, Francesca 18, 54 Fregni Serpini, Giulia 18, 54 Gagneux, Sebastien 10-11, 13, 16, 30-31, 43 Gao, Zhiwei 18, 52 Garcia, Maria Jesus 20, 23, 61, 76 Garfein, Richard 10, 15, 39 Garima, Kushal 26, 88 Gauthier, Marie 25, 85 Gehre, Florian 10, 15, 41 Gemechu, Abdella 18, 53 Gennari, William 18, 54 Gey van Pittius, Nico 25, 84 Gidaqy, Mirutse 18, 53 Giri, Astha 19, 26, 59, 88 Glader, Mikaela 11, 16, 46 Goethe, Ralph 12, 17, 48 Gomes, Meissiner 24, 81 Gomes Fiocruz, Lia L. 26, 87 Gomes Magdinier, Harrison 19, 26, 56, 87 Gomgnimbou, Michel 11, 16, 19, 22, 24, 43, 56, 72, 81 Gonzalez Perez, Monica Natalia 21, 64 Gonzalez y Merchand, Jorge 11, 16, 20, 23, 47, 62, 75, 76 Gozlan, Rodolphe 12, 17, 51 Groth, Marco 20, 62 Grottola, Antonella 18, 54 Guéguan, Jean-François 12, 17, 51 Guerra, Julio 19, 55 Gusarevica, Nina 24, 79 Hamdan, Azhar 22, 70 Hamlet, Krystal 27, 92 Harris, Jackie 27, 92 Heffernan, Courtney 18, 52 Helguera, C 23, 76 Hernandez, AC 23, 76 Hernández-Pando, Rogelio 23, 73 Herranz, Marta 9, 14, 25, 36, 82 Hillemann, Doris 9, 14, 35 Hilpert, Kai 22, 68 Hnilicová, Jarmila 12, 17, 20, 50, 61 Hoffner, Sven 5, 9, 11, 14, 16, 35, 46 Hölscher, Michael 10, 13, 15, 30, 41 Hölzer, Martin 20, 62 Ignatyeva, Olga 12, 17, 48 Igumnova, Viktorija 25, 83 Imperiale, Belen 18, 53 Iqbal, Riwan 25, 85 Izco, Santiago 9, 14, 36 Jang, Yoonra 24, 78 Jang, Yun-Ho 24, 78 Janoušková, Martina 12, 17, 20, 50, 61 Jansone, Inta 10, 15, 24-25, 38, 79, 83 Jarek, Michael 12, 17, 48 Johanna Pérez Llanos, Francy 22, 69-70 Johnson, Daniel 21, 67 Jordão, Luísa 26, 89 Karsli, Firat 19, 57 Katalinić-Janković, Vera 20, 60, 63 Kaya, Selcuk 18, 21, 52, 66-67 Kayar, Begum 19, 21, 26, 57, 59, 65, 86 Khan, Md. Siddiqur Rahman 19, 59 Kim, Jae Myung 24, 78 Kim, Jin Kyoung 24, 78 Kim, Jong-Taek 24, 78 Kim, Narae 24, 78 Klatt, Magdalena 24, 80 Klotoe, Bernice 19, 56 Knudson, Angélica 22, 69-70 Koch, Anders 25, 86 Kohansal, Farhad 19, 21, 57, 65 Kohl, Thomas A. 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 25, 30, 36, 41, 51, 86 95 Köhler, Heike 20, 62 Koksal, Fatih 19, 21, 26, 57, 59, 65, 86 Kompes, Gordan 20, 63 Kononenko, Julia 24, 79 Kontsevaya, Irina 12, 17, 48 Köser, Claudio 8, 13, 33 Kozińska, Monika 18, 24, 54, 80 Krásný, Libor 12, 17, 20, 50, 61 Kumar, Naresh 26, 88 Kumar, Parveen 18, 53 Ladefoged, Karin 25, 86 Lange, Christoph 10, 15, 39 Lauska, Zita 24, 79 Lauzardo, Michael 19, 59 Lawson, Lovett 24, 81 Lee, Hang 24, 78 Lee, Soo Hee 24, 78 Legrand, Eric 12, 17, 51 Leimane, Vaira 10, 15, 38 Leitch, Jeffry 27, 92 Lell, Bertrand 10, 15, 41 Levi, Diana 22, 72 Lillebaek, Troels 25, 86 Long, David 18, 52 Long, Richard 18, 52 Lopes, Maria Luiza 26, 87 Lopez, Beatriz 20, 63 López Roa, Paula 9, 14, 36 Lopez-Avalos, Gladys 24, 78 Lopez-Rodriguez, Martin 24, 78 Ludannyy, Ruslan 22, 72 Machado, Diana 26, 90 Magnani, Rita 18, 54 Mammina, Caterina 11, 16, 43 Manicheva, Olga 23, 76 Mansjö, Mikael 9, 14, 35 Marina, Maria Concepción 9, 14, 34 Markelov, Michail 22, 72 Martin, Anandi 10-11, 15-16, 18, 20, 42, 47, 53, 62-63 Martínez Lirola, Miguel 9, 14, 25, 36, 82 Marz, Manja 20, 62 Marzi, Mahdi 19, 26, 57, 86 Masakidi, Pedro 26, 90 Mata-Espinosa, Dulce 23, 73 May, R. Justin 19, 59 Mazzarelli, Antonio 21, 68 Meens, Jochen 12, 17, 48 Melnikova, Natalia 23-24, 76, 79 Merker, Matthias 9, 10, 13, 15, 30, 39 Millet, Julie 12, 17, 51 Miotto, Paolo 9, 11, 14, 16, 21, 35-36, 45, 67 Miralles, Pilar 25, 82 Möbius, Petra 20, 62 Mokrousov, Igor 10, 15, 23-24, 41, 76, 79 Molina-Moya, Barbara 19, 22, 24, 56, 72, 81 Momo, Juan Carlos 9, 14, 36 Monteserin, Johana 20, 63 Morcillo, Nora 18, 53 96 Morozova, Ilze 10, 15, 38 Morris, Aaron 12, 17, 51 Mosnier, Amandine 25, 85 Mougari, Faiza 8 Moure, Zaira 9, 14, 34 Mulder, A. 16, 45 Müllerová, Maria 22, 69 Munshi, Tulika 22, 68 Murcia, Martha I 18-19, 21-22, 55, 64, 69-71 Nagiyev, Togrul 19, 21, 26, 57, 65, 86 Nanni, Nadia 18, 54 Napiórkowska, Agnieszka 18, 54 Narang, Anshika 19, 26, 59, 88 Narvskaya, Olga 23-24, 76, 79 Navarrete, Myriam 22, 69-70 Navarro, Yurena 25, 82 Nicol, Marc 10, 13, 30 Niegowska, Magda 23, 77 Niemann, Stefan 2, 5, 8-10, 12-15, 17, 21, 23, 25-26, 28, 30, 36, 39, 41, 51, 67, 77, 86, 88 Nikolayevskyy, Vladyslav 12, 17, 25, 48, 83 Nisii, Carla 21, 68 Nodieva, Anda 10, 15, 24-25, 38, 79, 83 Nordsiek, Gabriele 20, 62 Noroc, Ecaterina 10, 15, 39 Ntoumi, Francine 10, 15, 41 Nübel, Ulrich 30 Obasanya, Joshua 24, 81 Obrovac, Mihaela 20, 60 Ocheretina, Oksana 25, 85 Ossa, Saray 22, 71 Ozere, Iveta 10, 15, 24-25, 38, 79, 83 Paboriboune, Phimpha 25, 85 Paccagnini, Daniela 23, 77 Paglia, Maria Grazia 21, 68 Pain, Arnab 25, 84 Palomino, Juan Carlos 10-11, 15-16, 18, 20, 42, 47, 53, 62, 63 Pape, Jean William 25, 85 Paranhos-Baccala, Glaucia 25, 85 Park, So-young 24, 78 Parra-López, Carlos 21, 22, 64, 69-70 Parsons, Sven 25, 84 Pastare, Ruta 24, 79 Pate, Mateja 20, 63 Paul, Roxana 20, 63 Pecorari, Monica 18, 54 Penlap Beng, Véronique N. 10, 15, 41 Peranović, Nada Šorli 26, 88 Perdigão, João 26, 87, 89-90 Pérez-Lago, Laura 9, 14, 25, 36, 82 Perini Furlaneto, Ismari 26, 87 Petik, Bülent 22, 71 Petrou, Matthieu 12, 17, 47 Pimkina, Edita 12, 17, 48 Pino, Camilo 18, 55 Piscini, Alessandro 21, 68 Pjalkovskis, Janis 25, 83 Platzer, Matthias 20, 62 Podwal, Shraddha 26, 88 Pole, Ilva 10, 15, 24-25, 38, 79, 83 Polo, Claudia Llerena 19, 55 Portaels, Francoise 11, 16, 44 Porter, Michael 27, 92 Portugal, Isabel 26, 89-90 Pospíšil, Jiří 12, 17, 20, 50, 61 Proano-Perez, Freddy 11, 16, 44 Prokopenko, Anastasiya 12, 17, 50 Rabodoarivelo, Marie Sylvianne 10, 15, 18, 42, 53 Rachow, Andrea 10, 15, 41 Raftery, Philomena 23, 73 Rakotomanana, Fanjasoa 10, 15, 42 Ramos, Jorge 26, 90 Rancoita, Paola Maria 12, 17, 51 Ranka, Renate 10, 15, 24-25, 38, 79, 83 Rasolofo, Voahangy 10, 15, 18, 42, 53 Rastogi, Nalin 5, 12, 17, 26, 51, 87-88 Ratovonirina, Noël 10, 15, 42 Razafimahatratra, Solohery 10, 15, 42 Refrégier, Guislaine 11-12, 16-17, 22, 24-25, 43, 47, 72, 81, 85 Reichwald, Katrin 20, 62 Reil, Irena 20, 63 Reynaud, Yann 12, 17, 51 Ribič, Helena 26, 88 Riekstina, Vija 25, 83 Rigouts, Leen 10-11, 16, 19, 44, 56, 58 Rimis, Constantin 10, 15, 39 Rios-Sarabia, Nora 23, 75 Ritacco, Viviana 20, 63 Rodríguez, Juan Germán 18-19, 22, 23, 55, 70-71, 76 Rodwell, Timothy 10, 15, 21, 39, 67 Romancenco, Elena 10, 15, 39 Ron-Garrido, Lenin 11, 16, 44 Rossetti, Maria Lucia R. 26, 87 Ruiz Serrano, María Jesús 9, 14, 25, 36, 82 Ruiz-Sánchez, Bibiana Patricia 23, 73 Rumpianesi, Fabio 18, 54 Rüsch-Gerdes, Sabine 30 Ryoo, Soyoon 24, 78 Saglam, Yusuf 18, 21, 52, 67 Sajid, Ali 19, 56 Sampson, Samantha 25, 84 Sánchez, Adrian 9, 14, 34 Sánchez, Liliana 22, 69-70 Sánchez, Ricardo 22, 69-70 Sanchez-Padilla, Elisabeth 10, 15, 41 Sandoval-Diaz, Manuel 24, 78 Sari, Abdülkadir 22 Sayiner, Hakan 22, 71 Schats, Mirjam 19, 58 Schena, Elisa 11, 16, 45 Schito, Marco 21, 67 Schleusener, Viola 9, 14, 36 Sechi, Leonardo A 23, 77 Sefrioui, Hassan 9, 14, 34 Sener, Aslı Gamze 21, 66-67 Sengstake, Sarah 10, 15, 38-39 Serafín López, Jeanet 23, 73 Sertel Şelale, Deniz 9, 14, 37 Sharma, Meenu 18, 52 Shipulin, German 22, 72 Shoen, Carolyn 20, 61 Siame, Keith 25, 84 Siddiqi, Salman 8 Šiková, Michaela 12, 17, 50 Silva, Carla 26, 89-90 Silva, Pedro E. A. 26, 87 Silva Duarte, Rafael 26, 87 Simonetti, Tullia 12, 17, 51 Singh, Sarman 18, 53 Skangale, Anita 24, 79 Skenders, Girts 8-10, 12, 15, 17, 24-25, 38, 48, 79, 83 Sklaney, Mary 20, 61 Skrahina, Alena M. 9, 14, 35 Sng, Li-Hwei 22, 70 Soborg, Bolette 25, 86 Sodja, Eva 26, 88 Soini, Hanna 9 Sola, Christophe 10-12, 15-17, 19, 22, 24-25, 42-43, 47, 56, 72, 81, 85 Solovieva, Natalia 24, 79 Soltan, Viorel 10, 15, 39 Somphavong, Silaphet 25, 85 Song, Woong-seog 24, 78 Spicic, Silvio 20, 63 Spinasse, Lizania 22, 24, 72, 81 Starkova, Daria 24, 79 Starks, Angela 21, 67 Stevens, Wendy 9, 13, 30 Stucki, David 11, 16, 43 Suffys, Philip Noel 26, 87 Suit, Stephanie 27, 92 Sunchalina, Tatiana 24, 79 Tabassum, Rubina 25, 85 Taccetti, Giovanni 12, 17, 51 Tagliani, Elisa 9, 14, 35 Tagliazucchi, Sara 18, 54 Tahseen, Sabira 25, 85 Tan, Yen Ee 22, 70 Tarhan, Gülnur 22, 71 Tauch, Andreas 18, 21, 55, 64 Taveira, Nuno 26, 90 Titarenko, Olga 23, 75 Tizzano, Barbara 23, 77 Toro, Juan Carlos 9, 14, 35 Tortola Fernandez, Maria Teresa 9, 14, 34 Tortoli, Enrico 12-13, 17, 32, 51 Trovato, Alberto 12, 17, 25, 51, 83 Tukvadze, Nestani 10, 15, 25, 38, 85 Unis, Gisela 26, 87 Uzun, Meltem 9, 14, 37 Van der Merwe, Ruben 25, 84 Van der Spuy , Gian 25, 84 97 Van Helden, Paul 25, 84 Van Nieuwerburgh, Filip 11, 16, 47 Van Soolingen, Dick 10, 15-16, 38, 45 Van Veelen, P. 16, 45 Vandamme, Peter 11, 16, 18, 20, 47, 53, 62-63 Varghese, Bright 24, 80 Varma-Basil, Mandira 19, 26, 59, 88 Vasconcelos, Sidra E. G. 26, 87 Vázquez-Chacon, Carlos 24, 78 Venditti, Carolina 21, 68 Villanueva-Arias, Juan Carlos 24, 78 Vishnevskiy, Boris 23, 76 Viveiros, Miguel 26, 87, 90 Vulcano, Antonella 21, 68 Vyazovaya, Anna 23-24, 76, 79 Walker, Timothy 8-9, 13, 29, 31 Warren, Rob 25, 84 Wasiak, Katarzyna 24, 80 Werngren, Jim 11, 16, 46 White, Richard 11, 13, 31 Wirth, Thierry 30 Woei Ling Peh, Justine 22, 70 Wolfe, Joyce 18, 52 Wong-Baeza, Isabel 23, 73 Worku, Adane 18, 53 Yakici, Gulfer 19, 21, 26, 57, 65, 86 Yarar, Emel 19, 21, 26, 57, 65, 86 Yasmin, Memona 25, 85 Young, Douglas 11, 16, 43 Yula, Erkan 21, 67 Zabost, Anna 18, 54 Zalutskaya, Aksana 9, 14, 35 Zambrano, MM 23, 76 Zdelar-Tuk, Maja 20, 63 Zhou, Hong 18, 52 Zhuravlev, Viatcheslav 23-24, 75-76, 79 Zignol, Matteo 21, 67 Zmak, Ljiljana 20, 60 Zmaznova, Anna 23, 76 Žolnir-Dovč, Manca 26, 88 Zozio, Thierry 26, 88 . 98