Patent Application: US-89759204-A

Abstract:
disclosed is a method of detecting bacteria in a biological sample , especially a blood sample , without the need for extensive sub - culturing of the sample . nucleic acid present within the sample is isolated and bacterial dna specifically amplified using primers that uniquely prime the amplification of 16s rrna - encoding nucleic acid . the amplicons are then digested with an endonuclease to yield a restriction fragment length profile for the biological sample . the restriction fragment length profile for the biological sample is then compare to a database of profiles made using cultures of known bacterial species . a match between the sample profile and the database quickly identifies the bacteria present in the sample .

Description:
the procedure for identifying bacteria using trf profiles is diagrammed in fig1 . as shown in fig1 , blood samples are first cultured in conventional fashion to allow any bacteria present in the samples to multiply . a 100 μl aliquot is then taken from each sample and the dna extracted from each aliquot in conventional and well - known fashion . the extracted dna is then subjected to pcr amplification using at least two different pairs of 16s rdna - specific primers . at least one individual primer of each primer pair is labeled , preferably with a fluorescent label . in the preferred method , both primer in each primer pair is labeled with a differentially - detectable label . as shown in fig1 , the fluorophores 6 - fam and hex are used ( see the examples ). any pair of differentially detectable labels will suffice . a host of suitable fluorophores for use in labeling pcr primers can be obtained commercially from molecular probes , eugene , oreg . once obtained , the amplified fragments ( i . e ., the amplicons ) are sub - divided into smaller aliquots and each aliquot is digested with a different type of restriction endonuclease . as shown in fig1 , the endonucleases employed are alu i , hha i , msp i , and rsa i . these four endonucleases are simply representative examples . any restriction endonuclease , now known or discovered or developed in the future , may be used in the present invention . by way of a non - limiting list , the following restriction endonucleases can all be purchased commercially from several national and international suppliers : aat ii , acci , accill , acc65 i , accb7 i , acy i , age 1 , alu 1 , a / w26 i , a / w441 , apa 1 , ava i , ava 1i , ba / i , bamh 1 , ban i , ban ii , bbu 1 , bc / i , bgl1 , bg / i1 , bsam i , bsao i , bsp1286 i , bsrbr i , bsrs i , bssh ii , bst71 i , bst98 i , bst e ii , bst o i , bst x i , bst z i , bsu36 i , cfo i , cla 1 , csp i , csp 45 i , dde i , dpn i , dra 1 , ec1hk i , eco47 iii , eco52 i , eco72 i , ecoi cr i , ecor i , ecor ii ecor v , fok i , hae 11 , hae1i1 , hha i , hinc ii , hind iii , hinf i , hpa i , hpa ii , hsp92 i , hsp92 ii , i - ppo i , kpn i , mbo i , mbo ii , mlu 1 , msp i , mspa i , nae 1 , nar , nci i , nco i , nde 1 , ngom i , nhe i , not i , nru i , nsi 1 , pst 1 , pvu 1 , rvu ii , rsa 1 , sac i , sac ii , sal 1 , sau3a i , sau96 i , sca 1 , sfi i , sgf i , sin i , sma 1 , snab i , spe 1 , sph i , ssp 1 , sst i , stu 1 , sty 1 , taq i , tru9 i , tthlll i , vsp i , xba i , xho i , xho ii , xma 1 , and xmn i . the restriction fragments are then size - sorted to yield a restriction fragment length profile . the restriction fragments can be size - sorted by any means now known in the art or developed in the future for separating nucleic acid fragments based on molecular weight . gel or capillary electrophoresis is the preferred method of size - sorting the restriction fragments . restriction fragment length profiles are generated in this fashion for a host of bacterial strains and the data compiled into a searchable database . the restriction fragment length profiles generated directly from a positive blood culture are then compared to the profiles stored in the database . in this fashion , blood cultures that test positive for bacteria can be subjected to the invention and the infecting bacteria quickly identified . referring to table 1 , below , 69 reference organisms and 32 clinical blood isolates were analyzed by trf profiling . the 69 reference organisms presented in table 1 include 40 of the most common bacterial species isolated from positive blood cultures . the bact / alert blood culturing system ( organon teknika corp ., durham , n . c .) was used to perform gram staining for all positive blood cultures . all reference organisms and positive blood bottles were cultured on trypticase soy — 5 % sheep blood or chocolate agar at 37 ° c . under the appropriate atmospheric conditions . blood bottle isolates were identified using the automated vitek system ( biomérieux vitek inc ., hazelwood , mo .) using standard biochemical methods . minimum inhibitory concentrations ( mic ) for s . aureus were determined by microbroth dilution ( vitek system , biomérieux inc .). confirmation of oxacillin resistance was done using mueller - hinton agar with 4 % sodium chloride and 6 μg / ml of oxacillin sodium . isolates were considered methicillin - resistant if the mic for oxacillin was greater than or equal to 4 μg / ml and growth was present on oxacillin confirmatory media . dna was extracted from cultured colonies using a modification of the tissue protocol for the qiamp dna mini kit ( qiagen , inc ., valencia , calif .). a cell suspension ( 200 μl ) in h 2 o ( containing ˜ 5 - 10 mg cells ) was mixed with 200 μl of qiamp buffer al and 10 μl of proteinase k ( 20 mg / ml ). samples were incubated for 15 min . at 56 ° c . and then for 15 min . at 95 ° c . etoh ( 200 μl ) was added and mixed by vortexing . the samples were loaded , washed , and eluted in 200 μl from qiamp spin columns as indicated in the remainder of the manufacturer &# 39 ; s protocol . dna was extracted from growth - positive blood culture bottles using a modification of the qiamp dna mini kit tissue protocol and incorporating a benzyl alcohol extraction ( 11 ). blood culture ( 100 μl aliquot ) was mixed with 100 μl of qiamp buffer al and 10 μl of proteinase k ( 20 mg / ml ). samples were incubated for 15 min . at 56 ° c . and then for 15 min . at 95 ° c . samples were then diluted with 600 μl of filter sterile h 2 o to reduce the viscosity . benzyl alcohol ( 500 μl ) was added to each sample , mixed by vortexing for 10 sec ., and centrifuged at 20 , 000 × g for 5 min . a 400 μl aliquot of the aqueous supernatant was transferred to a new 1 . 5 ml tube and 200 μl of etoh was added and the solution mixed by vortexing . samples were loaded , washed , and eluted in 200 μl buffer from qiamp spin columns as indicated in the remainder of the manufacturer &# 39 ; s protocol . independent reactions with two sets of fluorescent labeled primers targeting the 16s rrna gene were used for pcr . amplifications were performed on chromosomal preparations from reference strains , as well as on the dna from blood isolates . the primers were chosen based on previously published evaluations of domain specificity ( 1 , 5 , 6 , 27 , 35 ) and maximization of matches received from queries using the t - rflp analysis program ( tap t - rflp ) of the ribosomal database project - ii ( 19 ). including a c or t at the third position from 3 ′ in ( 6fam )- s - d - bact - 0045 - b - s - 20 was predicted to enhance annealing to the streptococci and closely related organisms . as indicated , primers were labeled at the 5 ′ end with the dyes 6 - carboxyfluorescein ( 6 - fam ), 4 , 7 , 2 ′, 4 ′, 5 ′, 7 ′- hexachloro - 6 - carboxyfluorescein ( hex ), or n , n , n ′, n ′- tetramethyl - 6 - carboxyrhodamine ( tamra ). other suitable fluorophores can be obtained commercially from molecular probes . all primers were purchased from sigma - genosys ( the woodlands , tex .). the 5 ′ region ( encompassing hypervariable regions v1 - v3 ) of the 16s rrna gene was amplified with s - d - bact - 0045 - b - s - 20 ( 5 ′- 6fam - gcy taa cac atg caa gty ga ) ( seq . id . no : 1 ) and s - d - bact - 0785 - a - a - 19 ( 5 ′- hex - cta cca ggg tat cta atc c ) ( seq . id . no : 2 ). the 3 ′ region of the 16s rrna gene was amplified with s - d - bact - 0785 - a - s - 19 ( 5 ′- 6fam - gga tta gat acc ctg gta g ) ( seq . id . no : 3 ) and s - d - bact - 1371 - a - a - 20 ( 5 ′- hex - agg ccc ggg aac gta ttc ac ) ( seq . id . no : 4 ). pcr products from the primer pairs were predicted to be ˜ 750 bp and ˜ 600 bp , respectively , with some variability dependent on the organism from which the template dna is extracted . the primers for detection of nuc , referred to here as tamra - nuc - s ( 5 ′- tamra - gcg att gat ggt gat acg gtt ) ( seq . id . no : 5 ) and nuc - a ( 5 ′- agc caa gcc ttg acg aac taa agc ) ( seq . id . no : 6 ), were reported previously and correlated with coagulase phenotype in staphylococci ( 3 , 17 , 18 ). the predicted pcr product from the targeted template was 279 bp in length and did not contain an hha i restriction site . primers for detection of the meca gene of staphylococci , referred to here as tamra - meca - s ( 5 ′- tamra - aaa atc gat ggt aaa ggt tgg c ) ( seq . id . no : 7 ) and meca - a ( 5 ′- agt tct gca gta ccg gat ttg c ) ( seq . id . no : 8 ), were previously reported and evaluated for accuracy of identification of methicillin resistance in staphylococci ( 18 , 23 ). the predicted pcr product from the targeted template was 530 or 533 bp in length and contains an hha i restriction site , resulting in a tamra labeled fragment of 331 or 334 bases , respectively . the pcr amplification of the 3 ′ region of the 16s rrna gene ( 6 - fam labeled s - d - bact - 0785 - a - s - 19 and hex labeled s - d - bact - 1371 - a - a - 20 ), nuc , and meca were accomplished in a triplex reaction , similar to previous reports ( 16 , 18 ), under conditions described below . controls for terminal fragment size and restriction digest were prepared using tamra labeled s - d - bact - 0785 - a - a - 19 ( 5 ′- tamra - cta cca ggg tat cta atc c ) ( seq . id . no : 9 ) and unlabelled s - d - bact - 0045 - b - s - 20 ( 5 ′- gcy taa cac atg caa gty ga ) ( seq . id . no : 10 ). pcr was performed with chromosomal dna preparations from four organisms ( haemophilus influenzae , micrococcus luteus , salmonella enteritidis , and stenotrophomonas maltophilia ) for which the trf sizes of the tamra labeled products were known for each restriction enzyme ( alu i , hha i , msp i , and rsa i ). the reaction mixtures for pcr contained 1 × pcr buffer , 200 μm each deoxynucleoside triphosphate , 3 . 0 mm mgcl 2 , 0 . 5 μm each primer species , 1 . 0 u taq dna polymerase , and 1 . 0 μl chromosomal preparation per 15 μl reaction . due to approximately 4 - fold higher detection sensitivity of the fluorescence emission from the 6fam dye relative to hex dye , a ratio of 1 part 6fam - labeled primer ( 0 . 125 μm ) to 3 parts unlabelled primer ( 0 . 375 μm ) was used for primers s - d - bact - 0045 - b - s - 20 and s - d - bact - 0785 - a - s - 19 . dna was amplified using a model 9600 thermal cycler ( perkin - elmer , norwalk , conn .) with the following program : 15 min at 94 ° c . for denaturation and taq activation , 35 cycles consisting of denaturation ( 45 s at 94 ° c . ), annealing ( 30 s at 52 ° c . ), extension ( 60 s at 72 ° c . ), and a final extension for 5 min at 72 ° c . thermal gradient pcr with various magnesium concentrations was performed with reference strains to determine conditions that provided optimal product formation with minimal non - specific products . all pcr reactions were analyzed by gel electrophoresis and stained with ethidium bromide ( etbr ) to assure product formation prior to restriction digest . pcr products were digested with restriction enzymes ( invitrogen , carlsbad , calif . and new england biolabs , beverly , mass .) without further purification . each 10 μl restriction digest contained 1 μl of pcr product , 0 . 5 μl of restriction enzyme , and 8 . 5 μl of prepared stock containing 2 . 5 ng / μl each appropriate size / digest control dna in 1 × buffer . the pcr product of 6 - fam labeled s - d - bact - 0045 - b - s - 20 and hex labeled s - d - bact - 0785 - a - a - 19 ( amplifying the 5 ′ region of the 16s rrna gene ) was digested in separate reactions with alu i ( 5 ′- ag ↓ ct - 3 ′), hha i ( 5 ′- gcg ↓ c - 3 ′), msp i ( 5 ′- c ↓ cgg - 3 ′), and rsa i ( 5 ′- gt ↓ ac - 3 ′). the pcr product of 6 - fam labeled s - d - bact - 0785 - a - s - 19 and hex labeled s - d - bact - 1371 - a - a - 20 ( amplifying the 3 ′ region of the 16s rrna gene ), or the product ( s ) of the triplex reaction , were only digested with hha i . restriction digests were incubated for 2 hr at 37 ° c . followed by 20 min at 65 ° c . for enzyme inactivation . the lengths of trfs derived from amplified dna products were determined by electrophoresis with a model 377 automated sequencer ( applied biosystems , foster city , calif .). samples were prepared by combining 2 . 0 μl of restriction digest product , 2 . 5 μl of deionized formamide , 0 . 5 μl of 25 mm edta ( ph 8 . 0 ) containing 5 % ( wt / vol ) blue dextran , and 0 . 50 μl of x - rhodamine mapmarker 1000 xl ( bioventure , inc ., murfreesboro , tenn .). the size standard contains single strands of dna with a single rox fluorophore at 50 , 75 , 100 , 125 , 150 , 200 , 250 , 300 , 350 , 400 , 450 , 475 , 500 , 550 , 600 , 650 , 700 , 750 , 800 , 850 , 900 , 950 , and 1000 bases . samples were mixed by pipeting , denatured at 94 ° c ., and immediately cooled to 4 ° c . aliquots of 1 . 0 μl were loaded to a 36 cm , 4 . 75 % denaturing polyacrylamide gel and electrophoresed at 51 ° c . for 4 . 0 hr with limits of 3 kv and 60 ma . data was collected using genescan ®- brand software ( applied biosystems ) and the lengths of control and sample trfs were calculated by comparison with the internal standard using the local southern method ( 31 ). fragments lengths ≧ 20 nts but & lt ; 50 nts were calculated by linear extrapolation from the migration times of the 50 and 75 base standards . a program and a searchable trfp database were developed to support calculation and comparison , respectively , of raw data files containing 16s rdna gene trf size information exported from the genescan ® software . the program performs mean and standard deviation calculations of control fragment lengths , providing data for quality control from every sample lane . the maximum area 6 - fam and hex peak data for each lane are identified and organized according to the respective primer set and restriction digest combination . the program is then used to compare the sample trf profile , within an adjustable search window for each fragment , against organism profiles in the trfp database . the results from a gram stain can also be selected in the data input window to limit the search . the result of a search includes the number of matching fragment lengths ( within chosen windows ), ordering of closest matches , and links to best match trf profiles . four raw data files containing trf sizes extracted for bacterial sequences with individual primer and restriction enzyme combinations ( described above ) were obtained by special request from the ribosomal database project ii ( rdp - ii ) ( 19 ). the search parameters chosen here allowed as many as 5 mismatches in the first 15 bases from the 5 ′ end of each primer . the data for in silico digest products derived from each primer were combined and sorted by accession number or other unique identifier . the sorted data set was then cleared of all organism entries that did not have restriction digest information for each of the four 16s rdna specific primers . the remaining profiles each contained 10 trf &# 39 ; s for 5899 organisms , representing 2860 unique species , and were used to populate the trfp database . fig2 illustrates the chromosomal preparations taken from the following organisms and which were subsequently used in pcr to generate reference profiles : lanes 9a and 9b contain the pcr blanks and lanes m contain the molecular size markers ( 1 kb ladder , values to the left are kilobases ). the letters with each lane number denote the primer pair used for pcr : the pcr products were separated in a 1 . 0 % agarose gel at 120v for 20 min . as shown in fig2 , the pcr products from ( 6fam )- s - d - bact - 0045 - b - s - 20 and ( hex )- s - d - bact - 0785 - a - a - 19 were ˜ 750 bp , while products from ( 6fam )- s - d - bact - 0785 - a - s - 19 and ( hex )- s - d - bact - 1371 - a - a - 20 were ˜ 600 bp . the dna bands obtained from clinical isolates and their respective extractions from the positive blood culture bottles were indistinguishable . validation of tamra - labeled trf control sizes , three fragments for each restriction digest , was performed by calculation from duplicate loads of triplicate digests done on two consecutive days ( 12 values for each control , data not shown ). under the conditions used for the restriction digests there were no detectable undigested tamra - labeled fragments in the sizing gels . the control values calculated for tama - labeled trf sizes during determination of organism profiles are compiled in table 2 : for trf &# 39 ; s to be included in the profile for a given organism , the three internal digest control sizes were required to fall within a ± 3 base window for the expected size . although only 5 of the mean trf values rounded to exactly the expected size , all 12 control trf &# 39 ; s sizes were within 1 base of the expected value . the precision of fragment size determination is apparent from the range and standard deviation calculations , for which the greatest range was for two of the msp i digest controls ( 3 . 4 bases ). the average range for all the controls in this study , weighted for frequency , was ± 1 . 1 base from the mean . the trf profiles for 69 reference strains and 32 clinical isolates were determined and incorporated into the trfp database . combined with the original predicted trf profiles there are currently a total of 2435 trf profiles representing 921 different species of potential relevance to bacteremia . representative composite electropherograms for several organisms relevant to bacteremia are presented in fig3 . fig3 illustrates trf profiles for several strains isolated from positive blood culture bottles . each panel is a compilation of the five pcr product / restriction digest electropherograms for each organism and the applicable range of the standard curve ( 50 - 800 bases ; red peaks ). the single major 6fam fragments ( blue peaks ) and hex fragments ( green peaks ) of each digest are identified by letters ( a - j ). trf &# 39 ; s derived from pcr products of ( 6fam )- s - d - bact - 0045 - b - s - 20 and ( hex )- s - d - bact - 0785 - a - a - 19 are identified by a and b ( alu i ), c and d ( hha i ), e and f ( msp i ), or g and h ( rsa i ), respectively . trf &# 39 ; s derived from pcr products of ( 6fam )- s - d - bact - 0785 - a - s - 19 and ( hex )- s - d - bact - 1371 - a - a - 20 are identified by i and j ( hha i ), respectively . tabulated fragment size information for each organism is available from table 3 . the 33 experimentally determined trf profiles in table 3 are presented in the approximate order of incidence for isolation at marshfield laboratories . for any given organism , all fragment sizes initially within a 3 - base range were averaged and rounded to the nearest base to derive the reported cumulative trf profiles ( as with s . aureus and e . coli ). when an experimental trf was & gt ; 3 bases different than a duplicate , or another trf from the same species , the entire procedure from the initial pcr was repeated for that isolate to confirm or correct the sizing of a fragment . as a result , the trf &# 39 ; s derived from products of ( 6fam )- s - d - bact - 0045 - b - s - 20 and ( hex )- s - d - bact - 0785 - a - a - 19 for four different e . faecalis strains were found to have reproducible size diversity for two of the trf &# 39 ; s ( 6fam fragment with alu i and msp i ). in contrast , all of the staphylococcal species have essentially the same trf profile and classification is described in a later section . the majority of the experimentally determined trf profiles matched with the sequence predicted trf profiles for the same species . accurate identification of organisms at the genus level was successful through searches using partial trf profiles as shown in table 4 . note the readily apparent correspondence between all three of fig4 a , 4b , and 4 c , all of which are from bacteria of the genus staphylococcus . for further example , all 84 staphylococcal profiles in the trfp database match one of two minimal trf profiles containing a 200 ± 3 ( 81 / 84 ) ( fig3 , s . aureus , peak c ) or 539 ± 3 ( 3 / 84 ) base trf derived from ( 6fam )- s - d - bact - 0045 - b - s - 20 and a 104 base trf ( fig3 , s . aureus , peak d ) derived from ( hex )- s - d - bact - 0785 - a - a - 19 digested with hha i , without any matches for another genus . in addition , 96 % of the corynebacteria and rhodococci ( 124 / 129 ) matched a profile containing only 2 trf &# 39 ; s with only 2 other organisms from any other genus ( brevibacterium helvolum and tropheryma whippelii ). as illustrated in fig4 , a 279 base tamra - labeled trf from the hha i digested product of a triplex pcr , derived from the primers tamra - nuc - s and nuc - a , was detected only in s . aureus strains . each panel includes the tamra - labeled pcr product / restriction digest ( black peaks ) for each representative staphylococcal strain and the applicable range of the rox standard curve ( red peaks ). the presence of nuc ( 279 bases ) and meca ( 331 - 334 bases ) were screened from the hha i digest of pcr products from the primers tamra - nuc - s and tamra - meca - s , respectively . the tamra labeled hha i restriction digest / fragment size controls are indicated as ctl 228 and ctl 425 . the other staphylococci ( s . epidermidis atcc 35983 , s . saprophyticus mc 28r , and s . haemolyticus atcc 29970 ) did not have a tamra - labeled trf above background level in the 279 ± 3 base window , indicating the absence of nuc in these strains . several s . aureus strains with previously determined methicillin phenotypes were screened for the presence of meca by trf sizing . a 331 or 334 base tamra - labeled trf from the hha i digested product of a triplex pcr , derived from the primers tamra - meca - s and meca - a , was detected only in s . aureus strains determined to be methicillin resistant ( atcc 43300 , mc 53r , mc 97r , and mc 98r ) ( see representative electropherograms in fig4 ). the methicillin sensitive strains of s . aureus ( atcc 25923 , atcc 29213 , mc 91 , mc 99r , and mc 100r ) and other staphylococci ( s . epidermidis atcc 35983 , s . saprophyticus mc 28r , and s . haemolyticus atcc 29970 ) did not have a tamra - labeled trf above background level in the 333 ± 3 base window , suggesting the absence of meca in these strains . the present invention allows for the differentiation of a wide variety of bacteria known to be isolated from blood culture . trf profiles represent sequence predicted information , thereby offering an advantage over single - stranded conformation polymorphism ( sscp ) analysis , as additional primer sets can be more easily incorporated into the identification scheme . trf profiling for bacterial identification is more rapid than sequencing of the 16s rrna gene , primarily because it does not require a second thermal cycler reaction to produce sequencable terminated products . it is understood that the invention is not confined to the particular construction and arrangement of parts herein illustrated and described , but embraces such modified forms thereof as come within the scope of the claims following the bibliography . 1 . amann , r . i ., w . ludwig , and k . h . schleifer . 1995 . phylogenetic identification and in situ detection of individual microbial cells without cultivation . microbiol . rev . 59 : 143 - 169 . 2 . avaniss - aghajani , e ., k . jones , a . holtzman , t . aronson , n . glover , m . boian , s . froman , and c . f . brunk . 1996 . molecular technique for rapid identification of mycobacteria . j . clin . microbiol . 34 : 98 - 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