Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1997 May;35(5):1157–1160. doi: 10.1128/jcm.35.5.1157-1160.1997

Molecular study of persistence of Nocardia asteroides and Nocardia otitidiscaviarum strains in patients with long-term nocardiosis.

F Provost 1, F Laurent 1, L R Uzcategui 1, P Boiron 1
PMCID: PMC232721  PMID: 9114399

Abstract

Three Nocardia asteroides and five Nocardia otitidiscaviarum isolates recovered from three patients with long-term nocardiosis were compared by random amplification of polymorphic DNA fingerprinting, antibiotic susceptibility testing, and enzymatic characterization. Results obtained with primer DKU49 (P. Palittapongarnpim, S. Chomyc, A. Fanning, and D. Kunimoto, J. Infect. Dis. 167:975-978, 1993) provide evidence that patient A was infected by two N. asteroides strains during a single episode of nocardiosis and that patients B and C remained infected by the same strain, respectively. Resistance to minocycline that was present in the first isolate recovered from patient B reverted to intermediate resistance in the second isolate and reverted to susceptibility in the third isolate. Resistance to penicillin G and beta-lactams was acquired by the second isolate obtained from patient C.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (395.5 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Beaman B. L., Beaman L. Nocardia species: host-parasite relationships. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1994 Apr;7(2):213–264. doi: 10.1128/cmr.7.2.213. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bingen E. H., Denamur E., Elion J. Use of ribotyping in epidemiological surveillance of nosocomial outbreaks. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1994 Jul;7(3):311–327. doi: 10.1128/cmr.7.3.311. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Boiron P., Provost F. Characterization of Nocardia, Rhodococcus and Gordona species by in vitro susceptibility testing. Zentralbl Bakteriol. 1990 Nov;274(2):203–213. doi: 10.1016/s0934-8840(11)80103-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Boiron P., Provost F. Enzymatic characterization of Nocardia spp. and related bacteria by API ZYM profile. Mycopathologia. 1990 Apr;110(1):51–56. doi: 10.1007/BF00442770. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Eady E. A., Jones C. E., Gardner K. J., Taylor J. P., Cove J. H., Cunliffe W. J. Tetracycline-resistant propionibacteria from acne patients are cross-resistant to doxycycline, but sensitive to minocycline. Br J Dermatol. 1993 May;128(5):556–560. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2133.1993.tb00235.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Exmelin L., Malbruny B., Vergnaud M., Prosvost F., Boiron P., Morel C. Molecular study of nosocomial nocardiosis outbreak involving heart transplant recipients. J Clin Microbiol. 1996 Apr;34(4):1014–1016. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.4.1014-1016.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Holt R. I., Kwan J. T., Sefton A. M., Cunningham J. Successful treatment of concomitant pulmonary nocardiosis and aspergillosis in an immunocompromised renal patient. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 1993 Feb;12(2):110–112. doi: 10.1007/BF01967584. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Jonsson S., Wallace R. J., Jr, Hull S. I., Musher D. M. Recurrent Nocardia pneumonia in an adult with chronic granulomatous disease. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1986 May;133(5):932–934. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Kado C. I., Liu S. T. Rapid procedure for detection and isolation of large and small plasmids. J Bacteriol. 1981 Mar;145(3):1365–1373. doi: 10.1128/jb.145.3.1365-1373.1981. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Laurent F., Carlotti A., Boiron P., Villard J., Freney J. Ribotyping: a tool for taxonomy and identification of the Nocardia asteroides complex species. J Clin Microbiol. 1996 May;34(5):1079–1082. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.5.1079-1082.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. McNeil M. M., Brown J. M. The medically important aerobic actinomycetes: epidemiology and microbiology. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1994 Jul;7(3):357–417. doi: 10.1128/cmr.7.3.357. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Micheli M. R., Bova R., Calissano P., D'Ambrosio E. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting using combinations of oligonucleotide primers. Biotechniques. 1993 Sep;15(3):388–390. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Monteforte J. S., Wood C. A. Pneumonia caused by Nocardia nova and Aspergillus fumigatus after cardiac transplantation. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 1993 Feb;12(2):112–114. doi: 10.1007/BF01967585. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Morace G., Dettori G., Sanguinetti M., Manzara S., Polonelli L. Biotyping of aerobic actinomycetes by modified killer system. Eur J Epidemiol. 1988 Mar;4(1):99–103. doi: 10.1007/BF00152699. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Palittapongarnpim P., Chomyc S., Fanning A., Kunimoto D. DNA fragment length polymorphism analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates by arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction. J Infect Dis. 1993 Apr;167(4):975–978. doi: 10.1093/infdis/167.4.975. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Pier A. C., Fichtner R. E. Distribution of serotypes of Nocardia asteroides from animal, human, and environmental sources. J Clin Microbiol. 1981 Mar;13(3):548–553. doi: 10.1128/jcm.13.3.548-553.1981. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Provost F., Blanc M. V., Beaman B. L., Boiron P. Occurrence of plasmids in pathogenic strains of Nocardia. J Med Microbiol. 1996 Nov;45(5):344–348. doi: 10.1099/00222615-45-5-344. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Sahathevan M., Harvey F. A., Forbes G., O'Grady J., Gimson A., Bragman S., Jensen R., Philpott-Howard J., Williams R., Casewell M. W. Epidemiology, bacteriology and control of an outbreak of Nocardia asteroides infection on a liver unit. J Hosp Infect. 1991 Jun;18 (Suppl A):473–480. doi: 10.1016/0195-6701(91)90059-h. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Speer B. S., Shoemaker N. B., Salyers A. A. Bacterial resistance to tetracycline: mechanisms, transfer, and clinical significance. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1992 Oct;5(4):387–399. doi: 10.1128/cmr.5.4.387. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Williams J. G., Kubelik A. R., Livak K. J., Rafalski J. A., Tingey S. V. DNA polymorphisms amplified by arbitrary primers are useful as genetic markers. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 Nov 25;18(22):6531–6535. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.22.6531. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. de Lamballerie X., Zandotti C., Vignoli C., Bollet C., de Micco P. A one-step microbial DNA extraction method using "Chelex 100" suitable for gene amplification. Res Microbiol. 1992 Oct;143(8):785–790. doi: 10.1016/0923-2508(92)90107-y. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. van Belkum A. DNA fingerprinting of medically important microorganisms by use of PCR. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1994 Apr;7(2):174–184. doi: 10.1128/cmr.7.2.174. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES