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SLAS Technology Dec 2023Cholera is a waterborne disease caused by Vibrio cholerae bacteria generally transmitted through contaminated food or water sources. Although it has been eradicated in... (Review)
Review
Cholera is a waterborne disease caused by Vibrio cholerae bacteria generally transmitted through contaminated food or water sources. Although it has been eradicated in most Western countries, cholera continues to be a highly transmitted and lethal disease in several African and Southeast Asian countries. Unfortunately, current diagnostic methods for cholera have challenges including high cost or delayed diagnoses that can lead to increased disease transmission during pandemics, while current treatments such as therapeutic drugs and vaccines have limited efficacy against drug-resistant serogroups of Vibrio cholerae. As such, new solutions that can treat cholera in an efficient manner that avoids Vibrio cholerae's adaptive immunity are needed. Nanoparticles (NPs) are a suitable platform for enhancing current theranostic tools because of their biocompatibility and ability to improve drug circulation and targeting. Nanoparticle surfaces can also be modified with various protein receptors targeting cholera toxins produced by Vibrio cholerae. This review will address recent developments in diagnostics, therapeutics, and prevention against cholera particularly focusing on the use of metal-based nanoparticles and organic nanoparticles. We will then discuss future directions regarding nanoparticle research for cholera.
Topics: Humans; Cholera; Vibrio cholerae; Metal Nanoparticles
PubMed: 37925157
DOI: 10.1016/j.slast.2023.10.006 -
Nature Microbiology Aug 2023To explore favourable niches while avoiding threats, many bacteria use a chemotaxis navigation system. Despite decades of studies on chemotaxis, most signals and sensory...
To explore favourable niches while avoiding threats, many bacteria use a chemotaxis navigation system. Despite decades of studies on chemotaxis, most signals and sensory proteins are still unknown. Many bacterial species release D-amino acids to the environment; however, their function remains largely unrecognized. Here we reveal that D-arginine and D-lysine are chemotactic repellent signals for the cholera pathogen Vibrio cholerae. These D-amino acids are sensed by a single chemoreceptor MCP co-transcribed with the racemase enzyme that synthesizes them under the control of the stress-response sigma factor RpoS. Structural characterization of this chemoreceptor bound to either D-arginine or D-lysine allowed us to pinpoint the residues defining its specificity. Interestingly, the specificity for these D-amino acids appears to be restricted to those MCP orthologues transcriptionally linked to the racemase. Our results suggest that D-amino acids can shape the biodiversity and structure of complex microbial communities under adverse conditions.
Topics: Vibrio cholerae; Amino Acids; Lysine; Bacterial Proteins; Bacteria; Arginine
PubMed: 37365341
DOI: 10.1038/s41564-023-01419-6 -
Current Opinion in Microbiology Aug 2023Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that specifically infect bacteria. These viruses were discovered a century ago and have been used as a model system in microbial... (Review)
Review
Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that specifically infect bacteria. These viruses were discovered a century ago and have been used as a model system in microbial genetics and molecular biology. In order to survive, bacteria have to quickly adapt to phage challenges in their natural settings. In turn, phages continuously develop/evolve mechanisms for battling host defenses. A deeper understanding of the arms race between bacteria and phages is essential for the rational design of phage-based prophylaxis and therapies to prevent and treat bacterial infections. Vibrio species and their phages (vibriophages) are a suitable model to study these interactions. Phages are highly ubiquitous in aquatic environments and Vibrio are waterborne bacteria that must survive the constant attack by phages for successful transmission to their hosts. Here, we review relevant literature from the past two years to delve into the molecular interactions of Vibrio species and their phages in aquatic niches.
Topics: Bacteriophages; Vibrio
PubMed: 37062175
DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2023.102308 -
Science (New York, N.Y.) Sep 2023
Topics: Humans; Cholera; Climate Change; Vibrio cholerae
PubMed: 37769103
DOI: 10.1126/science.adl0414 -
The intersection between host-pathogen interactions and metabolism during Vibrio cholerae infection.Current Opinion in Microbiology Feb 2024Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae), the etiological agent of cholera, uses cholera toxin (CT) to cause severe diarrheal disease. Cholera is still a significant cause of... (Review)
Review
Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae), the etiological agent of cholera, uses cholera toxin (CT) to cause severe diarrheal disease. Cholera is still a significant cause of mortality worldwide with about half of all cholera cases and deaths occurring in children under five. Owing to the lack of cost-effective vaccination and poor vaccine efficacy in children, there is a need for alternative preventative and therapeutic strategies. Recent advances in our knowledge of the interplay between CT-induced disease and host-pathogen metabolism have opened the door for investigating how modulation of intestinal metabolism by V. cholerae during disease impacts host intestinal immunity, the gut microbiota, and pathogen-phage interactions. In this review article, we examine recent progress in our understanding of host-pathogen interactions during V. cholerae infection and discuss future work deciphering how modulation of gut metabolism during cholera intersects these processes to enable successful fecal-oral transmission of the pathogen.
Topics: Child; Humans; Cholera; Vibrio cholerae; Cholera Toxin; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Bacteriophages
PubMed: 38215547
DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2023.102421 -
Trends in Immunology Aug 2023Biofilms are communities of bacteria immersed in an extracellular matrix. Biofilms are considered a defensive strategy that protects bacteria from a hostile environment,...
Biofilms are communities of bacteria immersed in an extracellular matrix. Biofilms are considered a defensive strategy that protects bacteria from a hostile environment, including our immune system. Vidakovic et al. recently reported that Vibrio cholerae can build biofilms around immune cells and kill them, discovering an aggressive role for biofilms.
Topics: Humans; Vibrio cholerae; Biofilms; Extracellular Matrix
PubMed: 37429798
DOI: 10.1016/j.it.2023.06.009 -
ELife Sep 2023The seventh pandemic of the diarrheal cholera disease, which began in 1960, is caused by the Gram-negative bacterium . Its environmental persistence provoking recurring...
The seventh pandemic of the diarrheal cholera disease, which began in 1960, is caused by the Gram-negative bacterium . Its environmental persistence provoking recurring sudden outbreaks is enabled by rapid adaption to changing environments involving sensory proteins like ToxR and ToxS. Located at the inner membrane, ToxR and ToxS react to environmental stimuli like bile acid, thereby inducing survival strategies for example bile resistance and virulence regulation. The presented crystal structure of the sensory domains of ToxR and ToxS in combination with multiple bile acid interaction studies, reveals that a bile binding pocket of ToxS is only properly folded upon binding to ToxR. Our data proposes an interdependent functionality between ToxR transcriptional activity and ToxS sensory function. These findings support the previously suggested link between ToxRS and VtrAC-like co-component systems. Besides VtrAC, ToxRS is now the only experimentally determined structure within this recently defined superfamily, further emphasizing its significance. In-depth analysis of the ToxRS complex reveals its remarkable conservation across various species, underlining the significance of conserved residues in the ToxS barrel and the more diverse ToxR sensory domain. Unravelling the intricate mechanisms governing ToxRS's environmental sensing capabilities, provides a promising tool for disruption of this vital interaction, ultimately inhibiting survival and virulence. Our findings hold far-reaching implications for all strains that rely on the ToxRS system as a shared sensory cornerstone for adapting to their surroundings.
Topics: Transcription Factors; DNA-Binding Proteins; Bacterial Proteins; Bile; Vibrio; Vibrio cholerae; Bile Acids and Salts; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
PubMed: 37768326
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.88721 -
Food Research International (Ottawa,... Nov 2023There is little known about the growth and survival of naturally-occurring Vibrio parahaemolyticus in harvested raw shrimps. In this study, the fate of...
There is little known about the growth and survival of naturally-occurring Vibrio parahaemolyticus in harvested raw shrimps. In this study, the fate of naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus in post-harvest raw shrimps was investigated from 4℃ to 30℃ using real-time PCR combined with propidium monoazide (PMA-qPCR). The Baranyi-model was used to fit the growth and survival data. A square root model and non-linear Arrhenius model was then used to quantify the parameters derived from the Baranyi-model. The results showed that naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus were slowly inactivated at 4℃ and 7℃ with deactivation rates of 0.019 Log CFU/g/h and 0.025 Log CFU/g/h. Conversely, at 15, 20, 25, and 30 °C, the average maximum growth rates (μ) of naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus were determined to be 0.044, 0.105, 0.179 and 0.336 Log CFU/g/h, accompanied by the average lag phases (λ) of 15.5 h, 7.3 h, 4.4 h and 3.7 h. The validation metrics, A and B, for both the square root model and non-linear, indicating that the model had a good ability to predict the growth behavior of naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus in post-harvest raw shrimps. Furthermore, a comparative exploration between the growth of artificially contaminated V. parahaemolyticus in cooked shrimps and naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus in post-harvest raw shrimps revealed intriguing insights. While no substantial distinction in deactivation rates emerged at 4 °C and 7 °C (P > 0.05), a discernible disparity in growth rates was observable at 15 °C, 20 °C, 25 °C, and 30 °C, with the former surpassing the latter. Which indicated the risk of V. parahaemolyticus using models derived from cooked shrimps may be biased. Our study also unveiled a discernible seasonal effect. The μ and λ of V. parahaemolyticus in shrimps harvested in summer were similar to those harvested in autumn, while the initial and maximum bacterial concentration harvested in summer were higher than those harvested in autumn. This predictive microbiology model of naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus in raw shrimps provides relevance to modelling growth in situ.
Topics: Animals; Vibrio parahaemolyticus; Colony Count, Microbial; Food Microbiology; Seafood; Decapoda; Penaeidae
PubMed: 37803786
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2023.113462 -
Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift Nov 2023Vibrio cholerae, an important human pathogen, is naturally occurring in specific aquatic ecosystems. With very few exceptions, only the cholera-toxigenic strains... (Review)
Review
Vibrio cholerae, an important human pathogen, is naturally occurring in specific aquatic ecosystems. With very few exceptions, only the cholera-toxigenic strains belonging to the serogroups O1 and O139 are responsible for severe cholera outbreaks with epidemic or pandemic potential. All other nontoxigenic, non-O1/non-O139 V. cholerae (NTVC) strains may cause various other diseases, such as mild to severe infections of the ears, of the gastrointestinal and urinary tracts as well as wound and bloodstream infections. Older, immunocompromised people and patients with specific preconditions have an elevated risk. In recent years, worldwide reports demonstrated that NTVC infections are on the rise, caused amongst others by elevated water temperatures due to global warming.The aim of this review is to summarize the knowledge gained during the past two decades on V. cholerae infections and its occurrence in bathing waters in Austria, with a special focus on the lake Neusiedler See. We investigated whether NTVC infections have increased and which specific environmental conditions favor the occurrence of NTVC. We present an overview of state of the art methods that are currently available for clinical and environmental diagnostics. A preliminary public health risk assessment concerning NTVC infections related to the Neusiedler See was established. In order to raise awareness of healthcare professionals for NTVC infections, typical symptoms, possible treatment options and the antibiotic resistance status of Austrian NTVC isolates are discussed.
Topics: Humans; Vibrio cholerae; Cholera; Austria; Ecosystem
PubMed: 37530997
DOI: 10.1007/s00508-023-02241-0 -
The Journal of Biological Chemistry Sep 2023The vertebrate host's immune system and resident commensal bacteria deploy a range of highly reactive small molecules that provide a barrier against infections by...
The vertebrate host's immune system and resident commensal bacteria deploy a range of highly reactive small molecules that provide a barrier against infections by microbial pathogens. Gut pathogens, such as Vibrio cholerae, sense and respond to these stressors by modulating the expression of exotoxins that are crucial for colonization. Here, we employ mass spectrometry-based profiling, metabolomics, expression assays, and biophysical approaches to show that transcriptional activation of the hemolysin gene hlyA in V. cholerae is regulated by intracellular forms of sulfur with sulfur-sulfur bonds, termed reactive sulfur species (RSS). We first present a comprehensive sequence similarity network analysis of the arsenic repressor superfamily of transcriptional regulators, where RSS and hydrogen peroxide sensors segregate into distinct clusters of sequences. We show that HlyU, transcriptional activator of hlyA in V. cholerae, belongs to the RSS-sensing cluster and readily reacts with organic persulfides, showing no reactivity or DNA dissociation following treatment with glutathione disulfide or hydrogen peroxide. Surprisingly, in V. cholerae cell cultures, both sulfide and peroxide treatment downregulate HlyU-dependent transcriptional activation of hlyA. However, RSS metabolite profiling shows that both sulfide and peroxide treatment raise the endogenous inorganic sulfide and disulfide levels to a similar extent, accounting for this crosstalk, and confirming that V. cholerae attenuates HlyU-mediated activation of hlyA in a specific response to intracellular RSS. These findings provide new evidence that gut pathogens may harness RSS-sensing as an evolutionary adaptation that allows them to overcome the gut inflammatory response by modulating the expression of exotoxins.
Topics: Bacterial Proteins; Exotoxins; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Hemolysin Proteins; Hydrogen Peroxide; Transcriptional Activation; Vibrio cholerae; Disulfides; Sulfhydryl Compounds; Intracellular Space; Mass Spectrometry; Metabolomics; Glutathione Disulfide; Gastrointestinal Microbiome
PubMed: 37567478
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2023.105147