Boiko I. Microbiological diagnosis of gonococcal infection, antimicrobial resistance and genomic epidemiology of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Ukraine

The dissertation is devoted to the assessment and optimization of microbiological diagnostics of gonococcal infection, the study of antibiotic resistance and genomic epidemiology of N. gonorrhoeae isolates in Ukraine in the period 2013-2018. Determination of the antimicrobial susceptibility of 150 N. gonorrhoeae isolates to eight antibiotics showed that 11.3 % isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin, 6.0 % to tetracycline and 0.7 % to benzylpenicillin. None of the isolates was phenotypically resistant to ceftriaxone, cefixime, azithromycin, spectinomycin, or gentamicin. Ciprofloxacin resistance was caused by mutations in the gyrA (11.3%) and parC (8.7%) genes; to tetracycline - rpsJ V57M (16.7%) and / or tetM (4.7%); to penicillins - mosaic allele penA-34 001 (2.7%), production of β-lactamases (0.7%); mtrR (11.3%); mutations in the PorB1b protein (12.7%) and the ponA1 gene (16.7%).