Molecular Analysis of Isoniazid-Resistance Related Genes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolated from Korea

Resistance to isoniazid (INH), which is one of the most important drugs in Mycobacterium tuberculosis chemotherapy, has been associated with mutations in genes encoding the mycobacterial catalse-peroxidase (katG), the enoyl acyl carrier protein (ACP) reductase (inhA), alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (ahpC), beta-ketoacyl acyl carrier protein synthase (kasA), and NADH dehydrogenase (ndh). In this study, we examined INH-resistance related genes in 50 INH-resistant and 24 INH-susceptible isolates by PCR-sequence analysis. In brief, mutations at the katG gene were found at codon 315 alone (2/50), at codon 463 alone (19/50), and both at 315 and 463 (29/50). However, while mutations at codon 315 were only detected in INH-resistant isolates, mutations at codon 463 were also detected in INH-susceptible isolates indicating mutations at 463 alone do not seem to confer resistance to INH. Similar to the case of katG 463, some of inhA mutations were also found among INH-susceptible isolates. For example, whereas mutations at 8 upstream of the start codon (UPS) and 15 UPS of the inhA gene were detected only in INH-resistant isolates, mutations at 101, 115, and 125 UPS were detected only in INH-susceptible isolates. Many different kinds of mutations were detected in INH­resistant isolates at ahpC, oxyR gene, and intergenic region of the oxyR-ahpC genes. Howerver, the mutations were not found oxyR and the intergenic regions in INH-susceptible isolates. No mutations were found at either kasA or at ndh gene among INH-resistant isolates. In conclusion, some of mutations such as katG 315, inhA promotor region, and oxyR-ahpC seem to be strongly related to INH-resistance. Currently we are developing a molecular diagnostic method based on these results.