Abstract

CARVALHO, Wânia da Silva; MIRANDA, Silvana Spíndola de; PESQUERO, Jorge Luiz  and  GOMES, Maria Aparecida. Diagnostic of rifampicin-resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by polymerase chain reaction. Rev. Bras. Cienc. Farm. [online]. 2007, vol.43, n.1, pp. 31-38. ISSN 1516-9332.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1516-93322007000100004.

The resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to tuberculostatic drugs has emerged as a major public health threat. The resistance to rifampicin which has been attributed to structural changes in RNA polymerase can be considered as a marker for multi-drug-resistance to tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Patients bearing rifampicin-resistant strains have poor diagnosis even with treatment. Conventional culture-based drug sensibility testing can require several weeks due to the growth. In this paper we describe the most common PCR-based methods for detection of mutations that lead to rifampicin resistance, such as Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP), PCR Heteroduplex and INNO-LIPA. Recently, by Low Stringency using a Single Specific Primer (LSSP) assay, it was standardized a protocol that showed to be rapid and sensitive for the detection of mutations in the rpoB gene.

Keywords : Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Resistance; Rifampicin; PCR.