Divergent evolution of Corynebacterium diphtheriae in India: An update from National Diphtheria Surveillance network

Devanga Ragupathi, Naveen Kumar and Muthuirulandi Sethuvel, Dhiviya Prabaa and Murugan, Dhivya and Ranjan, Ranjini and Gautam, Vikas and Gupta, Prashanth and Johnson, Jaichand and Sharma, Naresh Chand and Mutreja, Ankur and Haldar, Pradeep and Kumar, Arun and Bhatnagar, Pankaj and Sangal, Lucky and Veeraraghavan, Balaji and Chang, Yung-Fu (2021) Divergent evolution of Corynebacterium diphtheriae in India: An update from National Diphtheria Surveillance network. PLOS ONE, 16 (12). e0261435. ISSN 1932-6203

[thumbnail of journal.pone.0261435.pdf] Text
journal.pone.0261435.pdf - Published Version

Download (1MB)

Abstract

Diphtheria is caused by a toxigenic bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheria which is being an emerging pathogen in India. Since diphtheria morbidity and mortality continues to be high in the country, the present study aimed to study the molecular epidemiology of C. diphtheriae strains from India. A total of 441 diphtheria suspected specimens collected as part of the surveillance programme between 2015 and 2020 were studied. All the isolates were confirmed as C. diphtheriae with standard biochemical tests, ELEK’s test, and real-time PCR. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing for the subset of isolates showed intermediate susceptibility to penicillin and complete susceptible to erythromycin and cefotaxime. Isolates were characterized using multi locus sequence typing method. MLST analysis for the 216 C. diphtheriae isolates revealed major diversity among the sequence types. A total of 34 STs were assigned with majority of the isolates belonged to ST466 (30%). The second most common ST identified was ST405 that was present in 14% of the isolates. The international clone ST50 was also seen. The identified STs were grouped into 8 different clonal complexes (CC). The majority belongs to CC5 followed by CC466, CC574 and CC209, however a single non-toxigenic strain belongs to CC42. This epidemiological analysis revealed the emergence of novel STs and the clones with better dissemination properties. This study has also provided information on the circulating strains of C. diphtheriae among the different regions of India. The molecular data generated through surveillance system can be utilized for further actions in concern.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: STM Repository > Biological Science
Depositing User: Managing Editor
Date Deposited: 11 Jan 2023 10:21
Last Modified: 25 Jul 2024 07:28
URI: http://classical.goforpromo.com/id/eprint/2346

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item