Login / Signup

HIV Coinfection Is Associated with Low-Fitness rpoB Variants in Rifampicin-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Chloé LoiseauDaniela BritesMiriam ReinhardKathrin ZürcherSonia BorrellMarie BallifLukas FennerHelen CoxLiliana K RutaihwaRobert J WilkinsonMarcel YotebiengE Jane CarterAlash'le AbimikuOlivier MarcyEduardo GotuzzoAnchalee AvihingsanonNicola ZetolaBasra DoullaErik C BöttgerMatthias EggerSebastien Gagneux
Published in: Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy (2020)
We analyzed 312 drug-resistant genomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates collected from HIV-coinfected and HIV-negative TB patients from nine countries with a high tuberculosis burden. We found that rifampicin-resistant M. tuberculosis strains isolated from HIV-coinfected patients carried disproportionally more resistance-conferring mutations in rpoB that are associated with a low fitness in the absence of the drug, suggesting these low-fitness rpoB variants can thrive in the context of reduced host immunity.
Keyphrases