-
Journal of Medical Microbiology Jun 2021The nasopharyngeal microbiome is a dynamic microbial interface of the aerodigestive tract, and a diagnostic window in the fight against respiratory infections and... (Review)
Review
The nasopharyngeal microbiome is a dynamic microbial interface of the aerodigestive tract, and a diagnostic window in the fight against respiratory infections and antimicrobial resistance. As its constituent bacteria, viruses and mycobacteria become better understood and sampling accuracy improves, diagnostics of the nasopharynx could guide more personalized care of infections of surrounding areas including the lungs, ears and sinuses. This review will summarize the current literature from a clinical perspective and highlight its growing importance in diagnostics and infectious disease management.
Topics: Drug Resistance, Microbial; Environment; Humans; Microbiota; Mycobacterium; Nasopharynx; Otitis Media; Virome
PubMed: 34165422
DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.001368 -
Frontiers in Immunology 2022Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are a heterogeneous group of originally environmental organi3sms, increasingly recognized as pathogens with rising prevalence... (Review)
Review
Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are a heterogeneous group of originally environmental organi3sms, increasingly recognized as pathogens with rising prevalence worldwide. Knowledge of NTM's mechanisms of virulence is lacking, as molecular research of these bacteria is challenging, sometimes more than that of M. tuberculosis (Mtb), and far less resources are allocated to their investigation. While some of the virulence mechanisms are common to several mycobacteria including Mtb, others NTM species-specific. Among NTMs, Mycobacterium abscessus (Mabs) causes some of the most severe and difficult to treat infections, especially chronic pulmonary infections. Mabs survives and proliferates intracellularly by circumventing host defenses, using multiple mechanisms, many of which remain poorly characterized. Some of these immune-evasion mechanisms are also found in Mtb, including phagosome pore formation, inhibition of phagosome maturation, cytokine response interference and apoptosis delay. While much is known of the role of Mtb-secreted effector molecules in mediating the manipulation of the host response, far less is known of the secreted effector molecules in Mabs. In this review, we briefly summarize the knowledge of secreted effectors in Mtb (such as ESX secretion, SecA2, TAT and others), and draw the parallel pathways in Mabs. We also describe pathways that are unique to Mabs, differentiating it from Mtb. This review will assist researchers interested in virulence-associated secretion in Mabs by providing the knowledge base and framework for their studies.
Topics: Mycobacterium abscessus; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Nontuberculous Mycobacteria; Phagosomes; Virulence
PubMed: 35880173
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.938895 -
Immunological Reviews May 2021Upon infection, mycobacteria, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), are recognized by host innate immune cells, triggering a... (Review)
Review
Upon infection, mycobacteria, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), are recognized by host innate immune cells, triggering a series of intracellular processes that promote mycobacterial killing. Mycobacteria, however, have developed multiple counter-strategies to persist and survive inside host cells. By manipulating host effector mechanisms, including phagosome maturation, vacuolar escape, autophagy, antigen presentation, and metabolic pathways, pathogenic mycobacteria are able to establish long-lasting infection. Counteracting these mycobacteria-induced host modifying mechanisms can be accomplished by host-directed therapeutic (HDT) strategies. HDTs offer several major advantages compared to conventional antibiotics: (a) HDTs can be effective against both drug-resistant and drug-susceptible bacteria, as well as potentially dormant mycobacteria; (b) HDTs are less likely to induce bacterial drug resistance; and (c) HDTs could synergize with, or shorten antibiotic treatment by targeting different pathways. In this review, we will explore host-pathogen interactions that have been identified for Mtb for which potential HDTs impacting both innate and adaptive immunity are available, and outline those worthy of future research. We will also discuss possibilities to target NTM infection by HDT, although current knowledge regarding host-pathogen interactions for NTM is limited compared to Mtb. Finally, we speculate that combinatorial HDT strategies can potentially synergize to achieve optimal mycobacterial host immune control.
Topics: Anti-Bacterial Agents; Autophagy; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Nontuberculous Mycobacteria
PubMed: 33565103
DOI: 10.1111/imr.12951 -
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection... 2020
Topics: Immunity, Innate; Mycobacterium tuberculosis
PubMed: 33194847
DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.611216 -
International Journal of Systematic and... Sep 2021The definition of a genus has wide-ranging implications both in terms of binomial species names and also evolutionary relationships. In recent years, the definition of...
The definition of a genus has wide-ranging implications both in terms of binomial species names and also evolutionary relationships. In recent years, the definition of the genus has been debated due to the proposed split of this genus into five new genera (, , , and an emended ). Since this group of species contains many important obligate and opportunistic pathogens, it is important that any renaming of species does not cause confusion in clinical treatment as outlined by the rule (56a) of the Prokaryotic Code. In this study, we evaluated the proposed and original genus boundaries for the mycobacteria, to determine if the split into five genera was warranted. By combining multiple approaches for defining genus boundaries (16S rRNA gene similarity, amino acid identity index, average nucleotide identity, alignment fraction and percentage of conserved proteins) we show that the original genus is strongly supported over the proposed five-way split. Thus, we propose that the original genus label be reapplied to all species within this group, with the proposed five genera potentially used as sub-genus complex names.
Topics: Bacterial Typing Techniques; Base Composition; DNA, Bacterial; Fatty Acids; Mycobacterium; Phylogeny; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; Sequence Analysis, DNA
PubMed: 34554081
DOI: 10.1099/ijsem.0.004922 -
F1000Research 2019Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are members of the Mycobacterium genus other than complex and . NTM are widely distributed in the environment and are increasingly... (Review)
Review
Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are members of the Mycobacterium genus other than complex and . NTM are widely distributed in the environment and are increasingly recognized as causes of chronic lung disease that can be challenging to treat. In this brief review, we consider recent developments in the ecology, epidemiology, natural history, and treatment of NTM lung disease with a focus on complex (MAC) and complex
Topics: Humans; Lung Diseases; Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous; Mycobacterium abscessus; Mycobacterium avium Complex
PubMed: 31602293
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.20096.1 -
Microbiology and Molecular Biology... Nov 2020Pathogenic mycobacteria cause chronic and acute diseases ranging from human tuberculosis (TB) to nontubercular infections. causes both acute and chronic human... (Review)
Review
Pathogenic mycobacteria cause chronic and acute diseases ranging from human tuberculosis (TB) to nontubercular infections. causes both acute and chronic human tuberculosis. Environmentally acquired nontubercular mycobacteria (NTM) cause chronic disease in humans and animals. Not surprisingly, NTM and often use shared molecular mechanisms to survive within the host. The ESX-1 system is a specialized secretion system that is essential for virulence and is functionally conserved between and is an NTM found in both salt water and freshwater that is often used to study mycobacterial virulence. Since the discovery of the secretion system in 2003, the use of both and has defined the conserved molecular mechanisms underlying protein secretion and the lytic and regulatory activities of the ESX-1 system. Here, we review the trajectory of the field, including key discoveries regarding the ESX-1 system. We highlight the contributions of studies and the conserved and unique aspects of the ESX-1 secretion system.
Topics: Animals; Bacterial Proteins; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Humans; Models, Biological; Mycobacterium marinum; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Protein Transport; Tuberculosis; Type VII Secretion Systems; Virulence
PubMed: 32878966
DOI: 10.1128/MMBR.00082-19 -
MBio Oct 2023Tuberculosis still remains a global burden and is one of the top infectious diseases from a single pathogen. , the causative agent, has perfected many ways to replicate...
Tuberculosis still remains a global burden and is one of the top infectious diseases from a single pathogen. , the causative agent, has perfected many ways to replicate and persist within its host. While mycobacteria induce vacuole damage to evade the toxic environment and eventually escape into the cytosol, the host recruits repair machineries to restore the MCV membrane. However, how lipids are delivered for membrane repair is poorly understood. Using advanced fluorescence imaging and volumetric correlative approaches, we demonstrate that this involves the recruitment of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-Golgi lipid transfer protein OSBP8 in the / system. Strikingly, depletion of OSBP8 affects lysosomal function accelerating mycobacterial growth. This indicates that an ER-dependent repair pathway constitutes a host defense mechanism against intracellular pathogens such as .
Topics: Humans; Vacuoles; Dictyostelium; Endoplasmic Reticulum; Mycobacterium marinum; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Tuberculosis
PubMed: 37676004
DOI: 10.1128/mbio.00943-23 -
Epidemiology and Infection Dec 2022A cross-sectional and retrospective study of patients with spp. in a Portuguese tertiary hospital, in 2009 and 2019, was performed to understand better the rise in...
A cross-sectional and retrospective study of patients with spp. in a Portuguese tertiary hospital, in 2009 and 2019, was performed to understand better the rise in isolations of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). The number of patients with positive samples for spp. grew from 56 in 2009 to 83 in 2019. The proportion of NTM rose from 39.3% to 49.4% ( = 0.240), with being more frequent in 2009 and in 2019, and decreased from 60.7% to 50.6%. Higher age was associated with NTM in both years, and pulmonary disease and immunosuppression were associated with NTM in 2019 ( < 0.05), with weak to moderate correlation ( = 0.231-0.343). The overall rise of NTM, allied to their known capacity to resist antimicrobial therapy, alerts clinicians to the importance of recognising potential risk factors for infection and improving future prevention strategies.
Topics: Humans; Nontuberculous Mycobacteria; Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous; Retrospective Studies; Cross-Sectional Studies; Mycobacterium avium Complex; Mycobacterium
PubMed: 36503567
DOI: 10.1017/S0950268822000899 -
Journal of Bacteriology Apr 2021Mycobacteria have unique cell envelopes, surface properties, and growth dynamics, which all play a part in the ability of these important pathogens to infect, evade host... (Review)
Review
Mycobacteria have unique cell envelopes, surface properties, and growth dynamics, which all play a part in the ability of these important pathogens to infect, evade host immunity, disseminate, and resist antibiotic challenges. Recent atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies have brought new insights into the nanometer-scale ultrastructural, adhesive, and mechanical properties of mycobacteria. The molecular forces with which mycobacterial adhesins bind to host factors, like heparin and fibronectin, and the hydrophobic properties of the mycomembrane have been unraveled by AFM force spectroscopy studies. Real-time correlative AFM and fluorescence imaging have delineated a complex interplay between surface ultrastructure, tensile stresses within the cell envelope, and cellular processes leading to division. The unique capabilities of AFM, which include subdiffraction-limit topographic imaging and piconewton force sensitivity, have great potential to resolve important questions that remain unanswered on the molecular interactions, surface properties, and growth dynamics of this important class of pathogens.
Topics: Adhesins, Bacterial; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Cell Membrane; Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; Membrane Lipids; Microscopy, Atomic Force; Mycobacterium; Surface Properties
PubMed: 33468595
DOI: 10.1128/JB.00547-20