![Sample our Bioscience journals, sign in here to start your access, Latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5925/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Bioscience.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The extensive use of tetracycline antibiotics has led to the widespread presence of tetracycline-resistance genes in Gram-negative bacteria and this poses serious threats to human and animal health. In our previous study, we reported a method for rapid detection of Tet(X)-producers using MALDI-TOF MS. However, there have been multiple machineries involved in tetracycline resistance including efflux pump, and ribosomal protection protein. Our previous demonstrated the limitation in probing the non-Tet(X)-producing tetracycline-resistant strains. In this regard, we further developed a MALDI-TOF MS method to detect and differentiate Tet(X)-producers and non-Tet(X)-producing tetracycline-resistant strains. Test strains were incubated with tigecycline and oxytetracycline in separate tubes for 3 h and then analyzed spectral peaks of tigecycline, oxytetracycline, and their metabolite. Strains were distinguished using MS ratio for [metabolite/(metabolite+ tigecycline or oxytetracycline)]. Four control strains and 319 test strains were analyzed and the sensitivity was 98.90% and specificity was 98.34%. This was consistent with the results obtained from LC-MS/MS analysis. Interestingly, we also found that the reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by tetracycline-susceptible strains were able to promote the degradation of oxytetracycline. Overall, the MALDITet(X)-plus test represents a rapid and reliable method to detect Tet(X)-producers, non-Tet(X)-producing tetracycline-resistant strains, and tetracycline-susceptible strains.
Acknowledgments
We thank professor Jian-Hua Liu (South China Agricultural University) for providing E. coli strain (TMexCD1-TOprJ1). We thank professor Hao-Ren (South China Agricultural University) for helpful suggestions and English translation.
Author contributions
J. S., Y.-H. L. and X.-L. L. designed the study. Z.-J. Z., Z.-H. C., Z.-X. Z, T. T., L.-J. L. and C.-Y. C. carried out the experiments. Q.-Y. D., S.-B. W. and H.-L. H. analyzed the data. J. S., Z.-H. C., L.-X. F., Z.-J. Z. and X.-Q. Y. wrote the draft of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Data availability statement
The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Transparency declarations
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here