Complementary use of MALDI-TOF MS and real-time PCR-melt curve analysis for rapid identification of methicillin-resistant staphylococci and VRE

Objectives: To develop a rapid method for routine screening of methicillin-resistant staphylococci and VRE for clinical isolates and positive blood cultures. Methods: Our method consisted of two parts: MALDI-TOF MS was used for identification of staphylococci and enterococci, followed by antibiotic resistance detection by real-time PCR-melt curve analysis without DNA extraction. The latter part included a triplex reaction for staphylococcal culture isolates (mecA, mecA(LGA251) and Panton-Valentine leucocidin genes), dual PCR of mecA/mecA(LGA251) and nuc genes for staphylococcal blood cultures, and a duplex reaction for enterococci (vanA and vanB genes). A total of 124 clinical isolates and 56 positive blood cultures were tested. MALDI-TOFMS was performed using Microflex LT (Bruker Daltonik, Bremen, Germany) and Rotor-Gene Q (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) was used for real-time PCR-melt curve analysis. The total assay time was <2.5 h. Results: The results revealed 100% concordance with antibiotic susceptibility testing or other reference methods for all culture isolates and enterococcal blood cultures. The percentage of concordance for staphylococcal blood cultures was 97.5%. Conclusions: The method described herein was fast, economical, reliable and capable of detecting mecALGA251, vanB1 and vanB2 genotypes, which are not included in most commercial assays. Large-scale screening is required to further test the performance of this protocol, especially for genotypes that are infrequently encountered.