Molecular characterization of Clostridioides difficile by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST): A study from tertiary care center in India

• DOI: 10.1016/j.anaerobe.2022.102545
• Publication Date: 2022-03-09T16:44:00Z
• Authors: Rama Chaudhry; Nidhi Sharma; Tej Bahadur; Swati Khullar; Sonu Kumari Agarwal; Abhipray Gahlowt; Nitin Gupta; Lalit Kumar; Sushil Kumar Kabra; Aparajit B. Dey
• Keywords: Diarrhea; Tertiary Care Centers; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Clostridioides; Clostridioides difficile; Bacterial Toxins; Clostridium Infections; Humans; Multilocus Sequence Typing; 3. Good health

Clostridioides difficile is an important pathogen responsible for antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (AAD). This study was aimed to perform multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) of C. difficile isolates from AAD cases and to understand the clonal relationship between these C. difficile strains.Thirty five strains and a standard strain C.difficile ATCC 9689 were characterized by polymerase chain reaction assay (PCR) for toxin genes (tcdA and tcdB gene) detection and MLST.MLST results revealed that the most common sequence types were ST-17, ST-54, ST-63. The cluster analysis revealed that strains isolated from AAD patients generated 12 MLST sequence types grouped into two distinct evolutionary lineages.ST 17 is most prominent sequence type. This is the first report of MLST based study of C. difficile from India. Further studies from diverse geographical regions can help better understand the epidemiology of CDI in India.