scholarly journals Matrix-assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) as a Reliable Tool to Identify Species of Catalase-negative Gram-positive Cocci not Belonging to the Streptococcus Genus

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 202-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa Almuzara ◽  
Claudia Barberis ◽  
Viviana Rojas Velázquez ◽  
Maria Soledad Ramirez ◽  
Angela Famiglietti ◽  
...  

Objective:To evaluate the performance of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) by using 190 Catalase-negative Gram-Positive Cocci (GPC) clinical isolates.Methods:All isolates were identified by conventional phenotypic tests following the proposed scheme by Ruoff and Christensen and MALDI-TOF MS (Bruker Daltonics, BD, Bremen, Germany). Two different extraction methods (direct transfer formic acid method on spot and ethanol formic acid extraction method) and different cut-offs for genus/specie level identification were used. The score cut-offs recommended by the manufacturer (≥ 2.000 for species-level, 1.700 to 1.999 for genus level and <1.700 no reliable identification) and lower cut-off scores (≥1.500 for genus level, ≥ 1.700 for species-level and score <1.500 no reliable identification) were considered for identification. A minimum difference of 10% between the top and next closest score was required for a different genus or species.MALDI-TOF MS identification was considered correct when the result obtained from MS database agreed with the phenotypic identification result.When both methods gave discordant results, the 16S rDNA orsodAgenes sequencing was considered as the gold standard identification method. The results obtained by MS concordant with genes sequencing, although discordant with conventional phenotyping, were considered correct. MS results discordant with 16S orsodA identification were considered incorrect.Results:Using the score cut-offs recommended by the manufacturer, 97.37% and 81.05% were correctly identified to genus and species level, respectively. On the other hand, using lower cut-off scores for identification, 97.89% and 94.21% isolates were correctly identified to genus and species level respectively by MALDI-TOF MS and no significant differences between the results obtained with two extraction methods were obtained.Conclusion:The results obtained suggest that MALDI-TOF MS has the potential of being an accurate tool for Catalase-negative GPC identification even for those species with difficult diagnosis asHelcococcus,Abiotrophia,Granulicatella, among others. Nevertheless, expansion of the library, especially including more strains with different spectra on the same species might overcome potential “intraspecies” variability problems. Moreover, a decrease of the identification scores for species and genus-level identification must be considered since it may improve the MALDI-TOF MS accuracy.

2014 ◽  
Vol 63 (9) ◽  
pp. 1143-1147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Woods ◽  
David Beighton ◽  
John L. Klein

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) provides rapid, accurate and cost-effective identification of a range of bacteria and is rapidly changing the face of routine diagnostic microbiology. However, certain groups of bacteria, for example streptococci (in particular viridans or non-haemolytic streptococci), are less reliably identified by this method. We studied the performance of MALDI-TOF MS for identification of the ‘Streptococcus anginosus group’ (SAG) to species level. In total, 116 stored bacteraemia isolates identified by conventional methods as belonging to the SAG were analysed by MALDI-TOF MS. Partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing, supplemented with sialidase activity testing, was performed on all isolates to provide ‘gold standard’ identification against which to compare MALDI-TOF MS performance. Overall, 100 % of isolates were correctly identified to the genus level and 93.1 % to the species level by MALDI-TOF MS. However, only 77.6 % were correctly identified to the genus level and 59.5 % to the species level by a MALDI-TOF MS direct transfer method alone. Use of a rapid in situ extraction method significantly improved identification rates when compared with the direct transfer method (P<0.001). We recommend routine use of this method to reduce the number of time-consuming full extractions required for identification of this group of bacteria by MALDI-TOF MS in the routine diagnostic laboratory. Only 22 % (1/9) of Streptococcus intermedius isolates were reliably identified by MALDI-TOF MS to the species level, even after full extraction. MALDI-TOF MS reliably identifies S. anginosus and Streptococcus constellatus to the species level but does not reliably identify S. intermedius.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 622-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rinosh J. Mani ◽  
Anil J. Thachil ◽  
Akhilesh Ramachandran

Accurate and timely identification of infectious etiologies is of great significance in veterinary microbiology, especially for critical diseases such as strangles, a highly contagious disease of horses caused by Streptococcus equi subsp. equi. We evaluated a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) platform for use in species- and subspecies-level identification of S. equi isolates from horses and compared it with an automated biochemical system. We used 25 clinical isolates each of S. equi subsp. equi and S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus. Using the MALDI-TOF MS platform, it was possible to correctly identify all 50 isolates to the species level. Unique mass peaks were identified in the bacterial peptide mass spectra generated by MALDI-TOF MS, which can be used for accurate subspecies-level identification of S. equi. Mass peaks (mass/charge, m/ z) 6,751.9 ± 1.4 (mean ± standard deviation) and 5,958.1 ± 1.3 were found to be unique to S. equi subsp. equi and S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus, respectively. The automated biochemical system correctly identified 47 of 50 of the isolates to the species level as S. equi, whereas at the subspecies level, 24 of 25 S. equi subsp. equi isolates and 22 of 25 S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus isolates were correctly identified. Our results indicate that MALDI-TOF MS can be used for accurate species- and subspecies-level identification of S. equi.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyi Yu ◽  
Zhenzhou Huang ◽  
Ying Li ◽  
Qingbo Fu ◽  
Lirong Lin ◽  
...  

Shewanella species are widely distributed in the aquatic environment and aquatic organisms. They are opportunistic human pathogens with increasing clinical infections reported in recent years. However, there is a lack of a rapid and accurate method to identify Shewanella species. We evaluated here matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) for rapid identification of Shewanella. A peptide mass reference spectra (PMRS) database was constructed for the type strains of 36 Shewanella species. The main spectrum projection (MSP) cluster dendrogram showed that the type strains of Shewanella species can be effectively distinguished according to the different MS fingerprinting. The PMRS database was validated using 125 Shewanella test strains isolated from various sources and periods; 92.8% (n = 116) of the strains were correctly identified at the species level, compared with the results of multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA), which was previously shown to be a method for identifying Shewanella at the species level. The misidentified strains (n = 9) by MALDI-TOF MS involved five species of two groups, i.e., Shewanella algae–Shewanella chilikensis–Shewanella indica and Shewanella seohaensis–Shewanella xiamenensis. We then identified and defined species-specific biomarker peaks of the 36 species using the type strains and validated these selected biomarkers using 125 test strains. Our study demonstrated that MALDI-TOF MS was a reliable and powerful tool for the rapid identification of Shewanella strains at the species level.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-162
Author(s):  
Gülşen Hasçelik ◽  
Markus Kostrzewa ◽  
Hamit Kaan Müştak ◽  
Celalettin Uner ◽  
Kadir Serdar Diker

Abstract Background The routine identification to the species level of Nocardia genus by conventional methods is a fastidious and time-consuming process owing to the limited biochemical reactivity of these microorganisms, often requiring 1 or more days to complete identification. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a new technology for definitive and rapid species identification. Methods We evaluated the MALDI-TOF MS for the identification of 44 clinical isolates of Nocardia species in comparison to 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing. Nocardia isolates were identified by microbiological examination, phenotypical tests and MALDI-TOF MS and the results were compared by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Results Of the 44 Nocardia strains, the identification of 28 isolates was determined with MALDI Biotyper database. According to this, 16 isolates (57.1%) of the strain log scores were ≥2. Two (7.1%) were identified to the species level (log scores of ≥2) as Nocardia otitidiscaviarum. The addition of a newly established Nocardia database (16 new Nocardia strains included to the original database) did significantly improve the scores. The results were 43 (97.7%) correct identification to the species level (log scores of ≥2). Conclusions This study showed that the identification of clinical Nocardia isolates by the Bruker MALDI Biotyper is highly reliable, whereas identification rates are generally lower than those for some Gram-negative bacteria and Gram-positive cocci. Based on our data, the identification rates can be improved by validated new database entries and the results can be confirmed with nucleic acid sequence analysis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-86
Author(s):  
Yue Sun ◽  
Jian Guo ◽  
Rong Chen ◽  
Liang Hu ◽  
Qihang Xia ◽  
...  

Abstract Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) holds promise as a potential tool for clinical identification of filamentous fungi. However, due to the lack of an appropriate extraction protocol and the difficulty of database building, the identification power of each system differs. In this study, we selected 126 clinical mould isolates comprising 28 species identified using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing as the reference method to evaluate three MALDI-TOF MS systems. When using cultures and sample preparation as recommended by the respective vendors, of the 126 strains tested, VITEK MS identified 121 (96.0%) to species-level and 124 (98.4%) to genus-level; Biotyper identified 53 (42.1%) to species-level and 54 (42.9%) to genus-level; Autof identified 74 (58.7%) to species-level and 76 (60.3%) to genus-level. For the Autof system, the tube extraction method recommended by the vendor performed better (59%) than the on-plate lysis (51%). Our study demonstrates that MALDI-TOF MS systems can successfully identify most clinically relevant fungi, while performance is still highly dependent on the database and sample preparation protocol.


2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 1251-1258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara J. Blosser ◽  
Steven K. Drake ◽  
Jennifer L. Andrasko ◽  
Christina M. Henderson ◽  
Kamal Kamboj ◽  
...  

This multicenter study analyzedNocardiaspp., including extraction, spectral acquisition, Bruker matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) identification, and score interpretation, using threeNocardialibraries, the Bruker, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and The Ohio State University (OSU) libraries, and compared the results obtained by each center. A standardized study protocol, 150Nocardiaisolates, and NIH and OSUNocardiaMALDI-TOF MS libraries were distributed to three centers. Following standardized culture, extraction, and MALDI-TOF MS analysis, isolates were identified using score cutoffs of ≥2.0 for species/species complex-level identification and ≥1.8 for genus-level identification. Isolates yielding a score of <2.0 underwent a single repeat extraction and analysis. The overall score range for all centers was 1.3 to 2.7 (average, 2.2 ± 0.3), with common species generally producing higher average scores than less common ones. Score categorization and isolate identification demonstrated 86% agreement between centers; 118 of 150 isolates were correctly identified to the species/species complex level by all centers. Nine strains (6.0%) were not identified by any center, and six (4.0%) of these were uncommon species with limited library representation. A categorical score discrepancy among centers occurred for 21 isolates (14.0%). There was an overall benefit of 21.2% from repeat extraction of low-scoring isolates and a center-dependent benefit for duplicate spotting (range, 2 to 8.7%). Finally, supplementation of the BrukerNocardiaMALDI-TOF MS library with both the OSU and NIH libraries increased the genus-level and species-level identification by 18.2% and 36.9%, respectively. Overall, this study demonstrates the ability of diverse clinical microbiology laboratories to utilize MALDI-TOF MS for the rapid identification of clinically relevantNocardiaspp. and to implement MALDI-TOF MS libraries developed by single laboratories across institutions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (8) ◽  
pp. 2068-2073 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison R. McMullen ◽  
Meghan A. Wallace ◽  
David H. Pincus ◽  
Kathy Wilkey ◽  
Carey-Ann D. Burnham

Invasive fungal infections have a high rate of morbidity and mortality, and accurate identification is necessary to guide appropriate antifungal therapy. With the increasing incidence of invasive disease attributed to filamentous fungi, rapid and accurate species-level identification of these pathogens is necessary. Traditional methods for identification of filamentous fungi can be slow and may lack resolution. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has emerged as a rapid and accurate method for identification of bacteria and yeasts, but a paucity of data exists on the performance characteristics of this method for identification of filamentous fungi. The objective of our study was to evaluate the accuracy of the Vitek MS for mold identification. A total of 319 mold isolates representing 43 genera recovered from clinical specimens were evaluated. Of these isolates, 213 (66.8%) were correctly identified using the Vitek MS Knowledge Base, version 3.0 database. When a modified SARAMIS (Spectral Archive and Microbial Identification System) database was used to augment the version 3.0 Knowledge Base, 245 (76.8%) isolates were correctly identified. Unidentified isolates were subcultured for repeat testing; 71/319 (22.3%) remained unidentified. Of the unidentified isolates, 69 were not in the database. Only 3 (0.9%) isolates were misidentified by MALDI-TOF MS (includingAspergillus amoenus[n= 2] andAspergillus calidoustus[n= 1]) although 10 (3.1%) of the original phenotypic identifications were not correct. In addition, this methodology was able to accurately identify 133/144 (93.6%)Aspergillussp. isolates to the species level. MALDI-TOF MS has the potential to expedite mold identification, and misidentifications are rare.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jisu Yeom ◽  
Nayeon Park ◽  
Raehyuk Jeong ◽  
Wonchoel Lee

MALDI Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) provides a fast and reliable alternative method for species-level identification of pathogens and various metazoans. Compared to the commonly used mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (mtCOI) barcoding, advantages of MALDI-TOF MS are rapid species identifications and low costs. In this study, we used MALDI-TOF MS to determine whether spectra patterns of different species can be used for species identification. We obtained a total of 138 spectra from individual specimens of Tigriopus, which were subsequently used for various cluster analyses. Our findings revealed these spectra form three clear clusters with high AU value support. This study validates the viability of MALDI-TOF MS as a methodology for higher-resolution species identification, allowing detection of cryptic species of harpacticoida. In addition, we propose a new species, Tigriopus koreanus sp. nov. by utilizing integrative methods such as morphological comparison, mtCOI barcoding, and MALDI-TOF MS.


2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 410-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masse Sambou ◽  
Maxence Aubadie-Ladrix ◽  
Florence Fenollar ◽  
Becaye Fall ◽  
Hubert Bassene ◽  
...  

Biting midges of the genusCulicoidesare implicated as vectors for a wide variety of pathogens. The morphological identification of these arthropods may be difficult because of a lack of detailed investigation of taxonomy for this species in Africa. However, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization−time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) profiling is efficient for arthropod identification at the species level. This study established a spectrum database ofCulicoidesspp. from Senegal using MALDI-TOF. Identification ofCulicoidesinsects to the species level before mass spectrometry was performed on the basis of morphological characters. MALDI-TOF MS reference spectra were determined for 437 field-caughtCulicoidesof 10 species. The protein profiles of all testedCulicoidesrevealed several peaks with mass ranges of 2 to 20 kDa. In a validation study, 72Culicoidesspecimens in the target species were correctly identified at the species level with a similarity of 95 to 99.9%. FourCulicoidesprotein profiles were misidentified. Nevertheless, six SuperSpectra (C. imicola,C. enderleini,C. oxystoma,C. kingi,C. magnus, andC. fulvithorax) were created. Abdomens of midges were used to amplify and sequence a portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene (COI). The results obtained using the MALDI-TOF MS method were consistent with the morphological identification and similar to the genetic identification. Protein profiling using MALDI-TOF is an efficient approach for the identification ofCulicoidesspp., and it is economically advantageous for approaches that require detailed and quantitative information of vector species that are collected in field. The database of AfricanCulicoidesMS spectra created is the first database in Africa. The COI sequences of fiveCulicoidesspecies that were previously noncharacterized using molecular methods were deposited in GenBank.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 661
Author(s):  
Adriana Calderaro ◽  
Mirko Buttrini ◽  
Monica Martinelli ◽  
Benedetta Farina ◽  
Tiziano Moro ◽  
...  

Typing methods are needed for epidemiological tracking of new emerging and hypervirulent strains because of the growing incidence, severity and mortality of Clostridioides difficile infections (CDI). The aim of this study was the evaluation of a typing Matrix-Assisted Desorption/Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS (T-MALDI)) method for the rapid classification of the circulating C. difficile strains in comparison with polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-ribotyping results. Among 95 C. difficile strains, 10 ribotypes (PR1–PR10) were identified by PCR-ribotyping. In particular, 93.7% of the isolates (89/95) were grouped in five ribotypes (PR1–PR5). For T-MALDI, two classifying algorithm models (CAM) were tested: the first CAM involved all 10 ribotypes whereas the second one only the PR1–PR5 ribotypes. Better performance was obtained using the second CAM: recognition capability of 100%, cross-validation of 96.6% and agreement of 98.4% (60 correctly typed strains, limited to PR1–PR5 classification, out of 61 examined strains) with PCR-ribotyping results. T-MALDI seems to represent an alternative to PCR-ribotyping in terms of reproducibility, set up time and costs, as well as a useful tool in epidemiological investigation for the detection of C. difficile clusters (either among CAM included ribotypes or out-of-CAM ribotypes) involved in outbreaks.


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