Title Participants Abstract "The predominance of Ethiopian specific Mycobacterium tuberculosis families and minimal contribution of Mycobacterium bovis in tuberculous lymphadenitis patients in Southwest Ethiopia" "Mulualem Tadesse Jano, Gemeda Abebe, Alemayehu Bekele, Mesele Bezabih, Pim De Rijk, Conor Meehan, Bouke de Jong, Leen Rigouts" "BACKGROUND: Ethiopia has an extremely high rate of extrapulmonary tuberculosis, dominated by tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBLN). However, little is known about Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBc) lineages responsible for TBLN in Southwest Ethiopia.METHODS: A total of 304 MTBc isolates from TBLN patients in Southwest Ethiopia were genotyped primarily by spoligotyping. Isolates of selected spoligotypes were further analyzed by 15-loci mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) (n=167) and qPCR-based single nucleotide polymorphism (n=38). Isolates were classified into main phylogenetic lineages and families by using the reference strain collections and identification tools available at MIRU-VNTRplus data base. Resistance to rifampicin was determined by Xpert MTB/RIF.RESULTS: The majority of isolates (248; 81.6%) belonged to the Euro-American lineage (Lineage 4), with the ill-defined T and Haarlem as largest families comprising 116 (38.2%) and 43 (14.1%) isolates respectively. Of the T family, 108 isolates were classified as being part of the newly described Ethiopian families, namely Ethiopia_2 (n=44), Ethiopia_3 (n=34) and Ethiopia_H37Rv-like (n=30). Other sub-lineages included URAL (n=18), S (n=17), Uganda I (n=16), LAM (n=13), X (n=5), TUR (n=5), Uganda II (n=4) and unknown (n=19). Lineage 3 (Delhi/CAS) was the second most common lineage comprising 44 (14.5%) isolates. Interestingly, six isolates (2%) were belonged to Lineage 7, unique to Ethiopia. Lineage 1 (East-African Indian) and Lineage 2 (Beijing) were represented by 3 and 1 isolates respectively. M. bovis was identified in only two (0.7%) TBLN cases. The cluster rate was highest for Ethiopia_3 isolates showing clonal similarity with isolates from North Ethiopia. Lineage 3 was significantly associated with rifampicin resistance.CONCLUSIONS: In TBLN in Southwest Ethiopia, the recently described Ethiopia specific Lineage 4 families were predominant, followed by Lineage 3 and Lineage 4-Haarlem. The contribution of M. bovis in TBLN infection is minimal." "Evaluation of mycobacteria growth indicator tube for direct and indirect drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from respiratory specimens in a Siberian prison hospital" "V Goloubeva, M Lecocq, P Lassowsky, F Matthys, Françoise Portaels, I Bastian" "Evaluation of Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) for drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis" "JC Palomino, H Traore, Kristina Fissette, Françoise Portaels" "Mycobacterium africanum (Lineage 6) shows slower sputum smear conversion on tuberculosis treatment than Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Lineage 4) in Bamako, Mali" "Bassirou Diarra, Mahamadou Kone, Antieme Combo Georges Togo, Yeya Dit Sadio Sarro, Aissata Boubakar Cisse, Amadou Somboro, Boureima Degoga, Mohamed Tolofoudie, Bourahima Kone, Moumine Sanogo, Bocar Baya, Ousmane Kodio, Mamoudou Maiga, Michael Belson, Susan Orsega, Meryam Krit, Sounkalo Dao, Ibrahim Izétiegouma Maiga, Robert L. Murphy, Leen Rigouts, Seydou Doumbia, Souleymane Diallo, Bouke de Jong" "OBJECTIVE: Ancestral M. tuberculosis complex lineages such as M. africanum are underrepresented among retreatment patients and those with drug resistance. To test the hypothesis that they respond faster to TB treatment, we determined the rate of smear conversion of new pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Bamako, Mali by the main MTBc lineages.METHODS: Between 2015 and 2017, we conducted a prospective cohort study of new smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Bamako. Confirmed MTBc isolates underwent genotyping by spoligotyping for lineage classification. Patients were followed at 1 month (M), 2M and 5M to measure smear conversion in auramine (AR) and Fluorescein DiAcetate (FDA) vital stain microscopy.RESULT: All the first six human MTBc lineages were represented in the population, plus M. bovis in 0.8% of the patients. The most widely represented lineage was the modern Euro-American lineage (L) 4, 57%, predominantly the T family, followed by L6 (M. africanum type 2) in 22.9%. Ancestral lineages 1, 5, 6 and M. bovis combined amounted to 28.8%. Excluding 25 patients with rifampicin resistance, smear conversion, both by AR and FDA, occurred later in L6 compared to L4 (HR 0.80 (95% CI 0.66-0.97) for AR, and HR 0.81 (95%CI 0.68-0.97) for FDA). In addition we found that HIV negative status, higher BMI at day 0, and patients with smear grade at baseline ≤ 1+ were associated with earlier smear conversion.CONCLUSION: The six major human lineages of the MTBc all circulate in Bamako. Counter to our hypothesis, we found that patients diseased with modern M. tuberculosis complex L4 respond faster to TB treatment than those with M. africanum L6." "Differences in T-cell responses between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium africanum-infected patients" "Leopold D Tientcheu, Jayne S Sutherland, Bouke de Jong, Beate Kampmann, James Jafali, Ifedayo M Adetifa, Martin Antonio, Hazel M Dockrell, Martin O Ota" "In The Gambia, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and Mycobacterium africanum (Maf) are major causes of tuberculosis (TB). Maf is more likely to cause TB in immune suppressed individuals, implying differences in virulence. Despite this, few studies have assessed the underlying immunity to the two pathogens in human. In this study, we analyzed T-cell responses from 19 Maf- and 29 Mtb-infected HIV-negative patients before and after TB chemotherapy following overnight stimulation of whole blood with TB-specific antigens. Before treatment, percentages of early secreted antigenic target-6(ESAT-6)/culture filtrate protein-10(CFP-10) and purified protein derivative-specific single-TNF-α-producing CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells were significantly higher while single-IL-2-producing T cells were significantly lower in Maf- compared with Mtb-infected patients. Purified protein derivative-specific polyfunctional CD4(+) T cells frequencies were significantly higher before than after treatment, but there was no difference between the groups at both time points. Furthermore, the proportion of CD3(+) CD11b(+) T cells was similar in both groups pretreatment, but was significantly lower with higher TNF-α, IL-2, and IFN-γ production in Mtb- compared with that of Maf-infected patients posttreatment. Our data provide evidence of differences in T-cell responses to two mycobacterial strains with differing virulence, providing some insight into TB pathogenesis with different Mtb strains that could be prospectively explored as biomarkers for TB protection or susceptibility." "Rapid detection of Mycobacteriumtuberculosis resistance to second-line drugs by use of the manual mycobacterium growth indicator tube system" "Anandi Martin, Andrea Von Groll, Kristina Fissette, JC Palomino, F. Varaine, Françoise Portaels" "Kanamycin susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis using mycobacterium growth indicator tube and a colorimetric method" "I Bastian, Leen Rigouts, JC Palomino, Françoise Portaels" "Characterization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis var. africanum isolated from a patient with pulmonary tuberculosis in Brazil" "Marcelo Fouad Rabahi, Emilyn Costa Conceicao, Luisa Oliveira de Paiva, Marcos Vinicius Muniz Lemes Souto, Maria Carolina Sisco, Jacobus de Waard, Paulo Cesar de Souza Caldas, Fatima Fandinho, Jesus Pais Ramos, Luciana Distasio de Carvalho, Carlos Eduardo Dias Campos, Karla Valeria Batista Lima, Sandro Patroca da Silva, Abhinav Sharma, Jaime Robledo, Uriel Alonso Hurtado Paez, Rafael Silva Duarte, Marlei Gomes da Silva, Lia Lima Gomes, Sidra Ezidio Goncalves Vasconcellos, Cecile Uwezeye, Bouke de Jong, Ana Paula Junqueira-Kipnis, Philip Noel Suffys" "Human tuberculosis (TB) is caused by members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), including Mycobacterium tuberculosis var. tuberculosis (MTB) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis var. africanum (MAF). While MTB is isolated worldwide, MAF is almost completely restricted to the African continent, and despite the historical proximity between Brazil and Africa during the slave trade, no case of TB being caused by MAF has been reported in Brazil to date. We hereby describe the first case of TB caused by MAF in Brazil comparing its genome against the published ones. A female patient who had never visited Africa presented with clinical symptoms typical of pulmonary TB. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the cultured isolate was identified as belonging to MTBC and partial sequence of the hsp65 gene was identical to that of MAF. This was confirmed by genotyping based on detection of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP), Region of Difference (RD) and spoligotyping. The isolate presented the Shared International Typing (SIT) 181. In the whole-genome comparison against MAF genomes available on published EMBL-EBI European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), the Brazilian genome (MAFBRA00707) was identified as belonging to Lineage 6 and clustered with isolates from The Gambia. This is the first report of the isolation of MAF from a patient from Brazil, without evidence of having any contact with an African index case." "Molecular epidemiology of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Poland: a 1-year study" "A Sajduda, A Brzostek, M Poplawska, N Rastogi, C Sola, E Augustynowicz-Kopec, Z Zwolska, J Dziadek, Françoise Portaels" "Resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to first and second line anti tuberculosis drugs in south west, Nigeria" "E Osman, O. Daniel, S. Ogiri, A Awe, O. Obasanya, E. Adebiyi, O. Ige, O. Oladimeji, O.G. Dairo, E Declercq, Mourad Gumusboga, G. Akang, R.A. Bakare"