Potential of MALDI-TOF MS as an alternative approach for capsular typing Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates.

ABSTRACT: Streptococcus pneumoniae can be classified in more than 90 capsular types, as traditionally determined by serological methods and more recently by PCR-based techniques. Such methods, however, can be expensive, laborious or unable to accurately discriminate among certain serotypes. Therefore, determination of capsular types, although extremely important for epidemiological purposes and for estimating the impact of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, is mainly restricted to research laboratories, being rarely performed in the clinical setting. In the present study, MALDI-TOF MS was evaluated as an alternative tool to characterize 416 pneumococcal isolates belonging to serotypes 6A, 6B, 6C, 9N, 9V or 14. For MALDI-TOF MS analysis, each isolate was submitted to an extraction protocol using formic

SUBMITTER: Pinto TC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5368646 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature