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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 2000, p. 1319-1323, Vol. 38, No. 4
Department of Medical Microbiology, St.
Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine and
Dentistry, London E1 2AD,1 and
Respiratory and Systemic Infection Laboratory, Central
Public Health Laboratory, London NW9 5HT,2
United Kingdom
Received 17 August 1999/Returned for modification 11 October
1999/Accepted 3 January 2000
New pneumococcal conjugate vaccines covering a limited number of
serotypes are likely to come into widespread use over the next
few years. It is unknown what effect this will have on the relative
importance of different serotypes as causes of pneumococcal infection. Hence, it will be important to monitor serotype prevalence before, during, and after the introduction of new vaccines. We have
investigated the ability of a PCR method based on polymorphisms in two
genes common to the different capsule loci to predict the serotype of
93 clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae submitted to the Central Public Health Laboratory in 1997. Of 70 isolates with
vaccine serotypes, 65 were predicted to belong to the correct serotype;
this number was improved to 69 with the inclusion of two additional
patterns to the database. Of 23 isolates with other serotypes,
19 were correctly predicted as non-vaccine serotypes, the discrepancy
lying with four isolates of 6A (non-vaccine serotype) that were
indistinguishable from isolates of 6B (vaccine serotype). In situations
in which culture of the organism is not feasible, this method could
potentially be applicable directly to clinical specimens and could be a
valuable aid to the surveillance of pneumococcal serotypes.
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Evaluation of Serotype Prediction by
cpsA-cpsB Gene Polymorphism in
Streptococcus pneumoniae

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Medical Microbiology, St. Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Turner St., London E1 2AD, United Kingdom. Phone: 44-207-377-7259. Fax: 44-207-375-0518. E-mail:
l.m.c.hall{at}mds.qmw.ac.uk.
Present address: Department of Biochemistry, University of
Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QW, United Kingdom.
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