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Emerging Infectious Diseases Aug 2004Residents in Taiwan are often exposed to marine microorganisms through seafood and occupational exposure. The number of reported cases of infection attributable to this... (Review)
Review
Residents in Taiwan are often exposed to marine microorganisms through seafood and occupational exposure. The number of reported cases of infection attributable to this organism has increased since the first case was reported in 1985. The increasing number of cases may be caused by greater disease activity or improved recognition by clinicians or laboratory workers. We analyze a clinical-case series of 84 patients with Vibrio vulnificus infection from 1995 to 2000 and describe the molecular epidemiologic features of pathogens isolated from these patients. The spectrum of clinical manifestations and outcomes, options of antimicrobial therapy, and virulence mechanisms were investigated. Results of molecular typing of isolates from humans and marine environment in this country had a high genetic divergence among these isolates. Education and measures are needed to prevent this emerging disease.
Topics: Humans; Molecular Epidemiology; Prevalence; Taiwan; Vibrio Infections; Vibrio vulnificus; Virulence
PubMed: 15496235
DOI: 10.3201/eid1008.040047 -
Folia Microbiologica Apr 2020Due to the development of Marine aquaculture, infections caused by Vibrio vulnificus are common all over the world. Symptoms of V. vulnificus infection vary from... (Review)
Review
Due to the development of Marine aquaculture, infections caused by Vibrio vulnificus are common all over the world. Symptoms of V. vulnificus infection vary from gastrointestinal illness to septicemia. After infection with V. vulnificus, some patients showed gastrointestinal symptoms, including vomiting, fever, diarrhea, and so on. Others appeared wound infection at the site of contact with bacteria, and even developed sepsis. Once it develops into sepsis, the prognosis of patients is very poor. However, its underlying pathogenic mechanism remains largely undetermined. Growing evidence shows that it can induce primary septicemia mainly via essential virulence factors and regulators. Therefore, it is important to identify the factors that play roles in sepsis. In this review, we systematically expounded the role of V. vulnificus virulence factors and regulators in its infection-induced sepsis in order to provide useful information for the treatment and prevention of V. vulnificus.
Topics: Animals; Bacterial Proteins; Humans; Sepsis; Vibrio Infections; Vibrio vulnificus; Virulence Factors
PubMed: 31840198
DOI: 10.1007/s12223-019-00763-7 -
Der Anaesthesist Sep 2020The prevalence of Vibrio vulnificus heavily depends on the temperature and salinity of the sea water. In the course of climate change an increase in cases of fatal... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
The prevalence of Vibrio vulnificus heavily depends on the temperature and salinity of the sea water. In the course of climate change an increase in cases of fatal sepsis caused by V. vulnificus at the German Baltic Sea coast could be detected.
OBJECTIVE
To generate awareness for a life-threatening infection with increasing incidence in Germany.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
This article presents an overview of the current state of the literature followed by an exemplary description of cases with V vulnificus sepsis caused by contact with water in the Baltic Sea, which were treated at the Medical University in Greifswald in summer 2018.
RESULTS
In the presence of risk factors, such as liver and kidney diseases, immunosuppression and male sex, there is a danger of severe sepsis if damaged skin comes into contact with contaminated sea water. A pronounced organ dysfunction can frequently be found on admission. In these cases the diagnosis must be made promptly and timely surgical cleansing and antibiotic treatment should be initiated (e.g. a combination of tetracyclines and third generation cephalosporins).
CONCLUSION
Sepsis due to V. vulnificus will probably increase over the coming years. Because there is a latency in some cases between infection and onset of sepsis, physicians beyond the coastal region must also be informed about this disease.
Topics: Anti-Bacterial Agents; Germany; Humans; Sepsis; Vibrio vulnificus
PubMed: 32620988
DOI: 10.1007/s00101-020-00811-9 -
Infection and Immunity May 2009
Review
Topics: Animals; Humans; Vibrio Infections; Vibrio vulnificus; Virulence; Virulence Factors
PubMed: 19255188
DOI: 10.1128/IAI.01046-08 -
The Journal of Dermatology Sep 2006Vibrio vulnificus is ubiquitous in aquatic environments; however, it occasionally causes serious and often fatal infections in humans. These include invasive septicemia... (Review)
Review
Vibrio vulnificus is ubiquitous in aquatic environments; however, it occasionally causes serious and often fatal infections in humans. These include invasive septicemia contracted through consumption of raw seafood, as well as wound infections acquired through contact with brackish or marine waters. In most cases of septicemia, the patients have underlying disease(s), such as liver dysfunction or alcoholic cirrhosis, and the secondary skin lesions including cellulitis, edema and hemorrhagic bulla appear on the limbs. Although V. Vul produces various virulent factors including polysaccharide capsule, type IV pili, hemolysin and proteolytic enzymes, the 45-kDa metalloprotease may be a causative factor of the skin lesions, because the purified protease enhances vascular permeability through generation of chemical mediators and also induces serious hemorrhagic damage through digestion of the vascular basement membrane. As well as other bacteria, V. Vul can regulate the protease production through the quorum-sensing system depending on bacterial cell density. However, this system operates efficiently at 25 degrees C, but not at 37 degrees C. Therefore, V. vulnificus may produce sufficient amounts of the protease only in the interstitial tissue of the limbs, in which temperature is lower than the internal temperature of the human body.
Topics: Humans; Japan; Metalloproteases; Vibrio Infections; Vibrio vulnificus
PubMed: 16958802
DOI: 10.1111/j.1346-8138.2006.00139.x -
Environmental Microbiology Oct 2020Vibrio vulnificus is a zoonotic pathogen able to cause diseases in humans and fish that occasionally result in sepsis and death. Most reviews about this pathogen... (Review)
Review
Vibrio vulnificus is a zoonotic pathogen able to cause diseases in humans and fish that occasionally result in sepsis and death. Most reviews about this pathogen (including those related to its ecology) are clearly biased towards its role as a human pathogen, emphasizing its relationship with oysters as its main reservoir, the role of the known virulence factors as well as the clinic and the epidemiology of the human disease. This review tries to give to the reader a wider vision of the biology of this pathogen covering aspects related to its phylogeny and evolution and filling the gaps in our understanding of the general strategies that V. vulnificus uses to survive outside and inside its two main hosts, the human and the eel, and how its response to specific environmental parameters determines its survival, its death, or the triggering of an infectious process.
Topics: Animals; Fish Diseases; Humans; Life Cycle Stages; Phylogeny; Vibrio Infections; Vibrio vulnificus
PubMed: 32567215
DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.15137 -
Microbiology and Immunology Jan 2017Vibrio vulnificus, a gram-negative halophilic estuarine bacterium, is an opportunistic human pathogen that causes rapidly progressive fatal septicemia and necrotizing... (Review)
Review
Vibrio vulnificus, a gram-negative halophilic estuarine bacterium, is an opportunistic human pathogen that causes rapidly progressive fatal septicemia and necrotizing wound infection. This species also causes hemorrhagic septicemia called vibriosis in cultured eels. It has been proposed that a range of virulence factors play roles in pathogenesis during human and/or eel infection. Among these factors, a metalloprotease (V. vulnificus protease [VVP]) and a cytolytic toxin (V. vulnificus hemolysin [VVH]) are of significant importance. VVP elicits the characteristic edematous and hemorrhagic skin damage, whereas VVH exhibits powerful hemolytic and cytolytic activities and contributes to bacterial invasion from the intestine to the blood stream. In addition, a few V. vulnificus strains isolated from diseased eels have recently been found to produce a serine protease designated as V. vulnificus serine protease (VvsA) instead of VVP. Similarly to VVP, VvsA may possess various toxic activities such as collagenolytic, cytotoxic and edema-forming activity. In this review, regulation of V. vulnificus VVP, VVH and VvsA is clarified in terms of expression at the mRNA and protein levels. The explanation is given on the basis of the quorum sensing system, which is dependent on bacterial cell density. In addition, the roles of environmental factors and global regulators, such as histone-like nucleoid structuring protein, cyclic adeno monophosphate receptor protein, RpoS, HlyU, Fur, ToxRS, AphB and LeuO, in this regulation are outlined. The cumulative impact of these regulatory systems on the pathogenicity of V. vulnificus is here delineated.
Topics: Animals; Bacterial Proteins; Hemolysin Proteins; Humans; Metalloendopeptidases; Metalloproteases; RNA, Messenger; Vibrio vulnificus; Virulence Factors
PubMed: 28111826
DOI: 10.1111/1348-0421.12465 -
Microbial Ecology May 2013Vibrio vulnificus is an estuarine bacterium which occurs in high numbers in filter-feeding molluscan shellfish, such as oysters. In individuals with certain underlying... (Review)
Review
Vibrio vulnificus is an estuarine bacterium which occurs in high numbers in filter-feeding molluscan shellfish, such as oysters. In individuals with certain underlying diseases, ingestion of the bacterium, e.g., in raw or undercooked oysters, can lead to a rapid and extremely fatal infection. Indeed, this one bacterium is responsible for 95 % of all seafood-borne deaths. In addition, the bacterium is capable of entering a preexisting lesion or cut obtained during coastal recreational activities, resulting in potentially fatal wound infections. This brief review, which comprised a presentation made at the Gordon Research Conference on "Oceans and Human Health," reflects over 35 years of research on this bacterium in the author's laboratory. It describes some of the known virulence factors and why males account for ca 85 % of all V. vulnificus cases. It notes the two genotypes now known to exist and how this pathogen enters a dormant, "viable but nonculturable" state during the winter months. Finally, the review discusses how global warming may be causing worldwide increases in the frequency and geographical extent of Vibrio infections.
Topics: Animals; Female; Humans; Male; Ostreidae; Shellfish; Shellfish Poisoning; Vibrio Infections; Vibrio vulnificus
PubMed: 23263234
DOI: 10.1007/s00248-012-0140-9 -
The Lancet. Infectious Diseases Feb 2020
Topics: American Civil War; Humans; Military Personnel; Vibrio Infections; Vibrio vulnificus
PubMed: 32006506
DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30676-0 -
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection... 2021RtxA1 is a major cytotoxin of () causing fatal septicemia and necrotic wound infections. Our previous work has shown that RpoS regulates the expression and secretion of...
RtxA1 is a major cytotoxin of () causing fatal septicemia and necrotic wound infections. Our previous work has shown that RpoS regulates the expression and secretion of RtxA1 toxin. This study was conducted to further investigate the potential mechanisms of RpoS on RtxA1 secretion. First, TolCV1 and TolCV2 proteins, two TolC homologs, were measured at various time points by Western blotting. The expression of TolCV1 was increased time-dependently, whereas that of TolCV2 was decreased. Expression of both TolCV1 and TolCV2 was significantly downregulated in an deletion mutation. Subsequently, we explored the roles of TolCV1 and TolCV2 in pathogenesis. Western blot analysis showed that RtxA1 toxin was exported by TolCV1, not TolCV2, which was consistent with the cytotoxicity results. Furthermore, the expression of TolCV1 and TolCV2 was increased after treatment of the host signal bile salt and the growth of mutant was totally abolished in the presence of bile salt. A mutation resulted in significant reduction of induced-virulence in mice. Taken together, TolCV1 plays key roles in RtxA1 secretion, bile salt resistance, and mice lethality of , suggesting that TolCV1 could be an attractive target for the design of new medicines to treat infections.
Topics: Animals; Bacterial Proteins; Escherichia coli; Mice; Vibrio Infections; Vibrio vulnificus; Virulence
PubMed: 33996641
DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.673222