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Parasites & Vectors Jun 2023Hedgehogs are small synanthropic mammals that live in rural areas as well as in urban and suburban areas. They can be reservoirs of several microorganisms, including... (Review)
Review
Hedgehogs are small synanthropic mammals that live in rural areas as well as in urban and suburban areas. They can be reservoirs of several microorganisms, including certain pathogenic agents that cause human and animal public health issues. Hedgehogs are often parasitized by blood-sucking arthropods, mainly hard ticks and fleas, which in turn can also carry various vector-born microorganisms of zoonotic importance. Many biotic factors, such as urbanization and agricultural mechanization, have resulted in the destruction of the hedgehog's natural habitats, leading these animals to take refuge near human dwellings, seeking food and shelter in parks and gardens and exposing humans to zoonotic agents that can be transmitted either directly by them or indirectly by their ectoparasites. In this review, we focus on the microorganisms detected in arthropods sampled from hedgehogs worldwide. Several microorganisms have been reported in ticks collected from these animals, including various Borrelia spp., Anaplasma spp., Ehrlichia spp., and Rickettsia spp. species as well as Coxiella burnetii and Leptospira spp. As for fleas, C. burnetii, Rickettsia spp., Wolbachia spp., Mycobacterium spp. and various Bartonella species have been reported. The detection of these microorganisms in arthropods does not necessarily mean that they can be transmitted to humans and animals. While the vector capacity and competence of fleas and ticks for some of these microorganisms has been proven, in other cases the microorganisms may have simply been ingested with blood taken from an infected host. Further investigations are needed to clarify this issue. As hedgehogs are protected animals, handling them is highly regulated, making it difficult to conduct epidemiological studies on them. Their ectoparasites represent a very interesting source of information on microorganisms circulating in populations of these animals, especially vector-born ones.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Arthropods; Hedgehogs; Rickettsia; Bartonella; Mammals; Siphonaptera; Ticks; Flea Infestations
PubMed: 37349802
DOI: 10.1186/s13071-023-05764-7 -
Epidemiology and Infection Sep 2023Rodents and shrews are major reservoirs of various pathogens that are related to zoonotic infectious diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate co-infections...
Rodents and shrews are major reservoirs of various pathogens that are related to zoonotic infectious diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate co-infections of zoonotic pathogens in rodents and shrews trapped in four provinces of China. We sampled different rodent and shrew communities within and around human settlements in four provinces of China and characterised several important zoonotic viral, bacterial, and parasitic pathogens by PCR methods and phylogenetic analysis. A total of 864 rodents and shrews belonging to 24 and 13 species from were captured, respectively. For viral pathogens, two species of hantavirus (Hantaan orthohantavirus and Caobang orthohantavirus) were identified in 3.47% of rodents and shrews. The overall prevalence of spp., Anaplasmataceae, spp., spp., Spotted fever group Rickettsiae, spp., and were 31.25%, 8.91%, 4.17%, 3.94%, 3.59%, 3.47%, and 0.58%, respectively. Furthermore, the highest co-infection status of three pathogens was observed among spp., spp., and Anaplasmataceae with a co-infection rate of 0.46%. Our results suggested that species distribution and co-infections of zoonotic pathogens were prevalent in rodents and shrews, highlighting the necessity of active surveillance for zoonotic pathogens in wild mammals in wider regions.
Topics: Animals; Bartonella; China; Coinfection; Leptospira; Phylogeny; Rodentia; Shrews
PubMed: 37675640
DOI: 10.1017/S0950268823001450 -
Virulence Dec 2024Gram-negative species are facultative intracellular bacteria that can survive in the harsh intracellular milieu of host cells. They have evolved strategies to evade... (Review)
Review
Gram-negative species are facultative intracellular bacteria that can survive in the harsh intracellular milieu of host cells. They have evolved strategies to evade detection and degradation by the host immune system, which ensures their proliferation in the host. Following infection, alters the initial immunogenic surface-exposed proteins to evade immune recognition via antigen or phase variation. The diverse lipopolysaccharide structures of certain species allow them to escape recognition by the host pattern recognition receptors. Additionally, the survival of mature erythrocytes and their resistance to lysosomal fusion further complicate the immune clearance of this species. Certain species also evade immune attacks by producing biofilms and anti-inflammatory cytokines and decreasing endothelial cell apoptosis. Overall, these factors create a challenging landscape for the host immune system to rapidly and effectively eradicate the species, thereby facilitating the persistence of infections and creating a substantial obstacle for therapeutic interventions. This review focuses on the effects of three human-specific species, particularly their mechanisms of host invasion and immune escape, to gain new perspectives in the development of effective diagnostic tools, prophylactic measures, and treatment options for infections.
Topics: Humans; Bartonella; Immune Evasion; Bartonella Infections; Apoptosis; Biofilms; Membrane Proteins
PubMed: 38443331
DOI: 10.1080/21505594.2024.2322961 -
International Journal of Systematic and... Apr 2024The alphaproteobacterial order consists of 38 families comprising at least 152 validly published genera as of January 2024. The order was first described in 1957 and...
The alphaproteobacterial order consists of 38 families comprising at least 152 validly published genera as of January 2024. The order was first described in 1957 and underwent important revisions in 2020. However, we show that several inconsistencies in the taxonomy of this order remain and we argue that there is a need for a consistent framework for defining families within the order. We propose a common genome-based framework for defining families within the order , suggesting that families represent monophyletic groups in core-genome phylogenies that share pairwise average amino acid identity values above ~75 % when calculated from a core set of 59 proteins. Applying this framework, we propose the formation of four new families and to reassign the genera , , and into fam. nov., fam. nov., and fam. nov., respectively, and the genera , , , and into fam. nov. We further propose to unify the families , , , and as ; the families and as ; the families and as ; and the families and as . Lastly, we propose to reassign several genera to existing families. Specifically, we propose to reassign the genus to the family ; the genera , , and to the family ; the genus to the emended family ; the genus to the family ; and the genus to the family . Our data also support the recent proposal to reassign the genus to the family .
Topics: Humans; Phylogeny; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Fatty Acids; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; DNA, Bacterial; Base Composition; Bacterial Typing Techniques; Alphaproteobacteria; Beijerinckiaceae
PubMed: 38619983
DOI: 10.1099/ijsem.0.006328 -
Journal of Clinical Microbiology Dec 2023Numbers of new and revised microbial taxa are continuously expanding, and the rapid accumulation of novel bacterial species is challenging to keep up with in the best of... (Review)
Review
Numbers of new and revised microbial taxa are continuously expanding, and the rapid accumulation of novel bacterial species is challenging to keep up with in the best of circumstances. With that in mind, following the template of reports on prokaryotic species isolated from humans, this is now the second publication summarizing new and revised taxa in non-domestic animal species in the . The majority of new taxa were obtained as part of programs to identify bacteria from mucosal surfaces and the gastrointestinal tract from healthy wildlife. A few notable bacteria included new spp. from mammalian and aquatic sources and a novel spp. isolated from a rodent, both of which could be considered members of emerging and re-emerging genera with pathogenic potential in humans and animals.
Topics: Humans; Animals; Bacteria; Animals, Wild; Bartonella; Rodentia; Gastrointestinal Tract
PubMed: 37888990
DOI: 10.1128/jcm.00840-23 -
BMC Ophthalmology Aug 2023Cat-scratch disease typically presents with various ocular manifestations such as uveitis, vitritis, retinitis, retinochoroiditis, and optic neuritis. However, fundus...
BACKGROUND
Cat-scratch disease typically presents with various ocular manifestations such as uveitis, vitritis, retinitis, retinochoroiditis, and optic neuritis. However, fundus nodular lesions was rarely reported. In our study, we reported a case of Cat-Scratch disease with binocular fundus nodular lesions.
CASE PRESENTATION
An 11-year old male presented with uveitis in the right eye and bilateral fundus nodular lesions after indirect contact with unvaccinated cats. Comprehensive ancillary examinations including wide-angle fundus photography, ultrasonography, fluorescein fundus angiography, optical coherence tomography, and orbital magnetic resonance imaging were performed to elucidate the multidimensional features of the binocular lesions. Metagenomics next-generation sequencing was utilized to confirm the diagnosis of Cat-scratch disease. The patient's condition showed improvement after a 6-month combination treatment regimen involving systemic administration of doxycycline hyclate and methylprednisolone tablets, as well as local application of mydriatic and corticosteroid eye drops.
CONCLUSIONS
We firstly reported a case of Cat-scratch disease presenting simultaneously with uveitis and fundus nodular lesions caused by Bartonella henselae infection in a child. Timely diagnosis and treatment with antibiotics and corticosteroids showed promising outcomes for the prognosis of these ocular disorders.
Topics: Male; Humans; Cat-Scratch Disease; Bartonella henselae; Fundus Oculi; Retinitis; Chorioretinitis
PubMed: 37544996
DOI: 10.1186/s12886-023-03063-4 -
Microbes and Infection 2023Human pathogenic bacteria circulating in the bloodstream need to find a way to interact with endothelial cells (ECs) lining the blood vessels to infect and colonise the...
Human pathogenic bacteria circulating in the bloodstream need to find a way to interact with endothelial cells (ECs) lining the blood vessels to infect and colonise the host. The extracellular matrix (ECM) of ECs might represent an attractive initial target for bacterial interaction, as many bacterial adhesins have reported affinities to ECM proteins, in particular to fibronectin (Fn). Here, we analysed the general role of EC-expressed Fn for bacterial adhesion. For this, we evaluated the expression levels of ECM coding genes in different ECs, revealing that Fn is the highest expressed gene and thereby, it is highly abundant in the ECM environment of ECs. The role of Fn as a mediator in bacterial cell-host adhesion was evaluated in adhesion assays of Acinetobacter baumannii, Bartonella henselae, Borrelia burgdorferi, and Staphylococcus aureus to ECs. The assays demonstrated that bacteria colocalised with Fn fibres, as observed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Fn removal from the ECM environment (FN1 knockout ECs) diminished bacterial adherence to ECs in both static and dynamic adhesion assays to varying extents, as evaluated via absolute quantification using qPCR. Interactions between adhesins and Fn might represent the crucial step for the adhesion of human-pathogenic Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria targeting the ECs as a niche of infection.
Topics: Humans; Adhesins, Bacterial; Bacterial Adhesion; Bartonella henselae; Endothelial Cells; Fibronectins
PubMed: 37343664
DOI: 10.1016/j.micinf.2023.105172 -
Anales de Pediatria Jun 2023
Topics: Humans; Bartonella henselae; Retinitis; Cat-Scratch Disease
PubMed: 37164827
DOI: 10.1016/j.anpede.2023.04.006 -
Parasitology Sep 2023Many organisms live in fragmented populations, which has profound consequences on the dynamics of associated parasites. Metapopulation theory offers a canonical...
Many organisms live in fragmented populations, which has profound consequences on the dynamics of associated parasites. Metapopulation theory offers a canonical framework for predicting the effects of fragmentation on spatiotemporal host–parasite dynamics. However, empirical studies of parasites in classical metapopulations remain rare, particularly for vector-borne parasites. Here, we quantify spatiotemporal patterns and possible drivers of infection probability for several ectoparasites (fleas, and ) and vector-borne microparasites (, spp., spp.) in a classically functioning metapopulation of water vole hosts. Results suggest that the relative importance of vector or host dynamics on microparasite infection probabilities is related to parasite life-histories. , a microparasite with a fast life-history, was positively associated with both host and vector abundances at several spatial and temporal scales. In contrast, , a tick-borne parasite with a slow life-history, was only associated with vector dynamics. Further, we provide evidence that life-history shaped parasite dynamics, including occupancy and colonization rates, in the metapopulation. Lastly, our findings were consistent with the hypothesis that landscape connectivity was determined by distance-based dispersal of the focal hosts. We provide essential empirical evidence that contributes to the development of a comprehensive theory of metapopulation processes of vector-borne parasites.
Topics: Animals; Bartonella; Flea Infestations; Ixodes; Siphonaptera
PubMed: 37519240
DOI: 10.1017/S0031182023000677 -
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Jun 2023The Bartonella genus consists of neglected pathogens associated with potentially transfusional-transmitted and fatal human diseases. We aimed to evaluate Bartonella sp....
The Bartonella genus consists of neglected pathogens associated with potentially transfusional-transmitted and fatal human diseases. We aimed to evaluate Bartonella sp. prevalence in 500 blood donors and compare the results with the data already published about these samples. We used molecular diagnostic methods to detect Bartonella sp.-DNA from blood and liquid culture samples: (A) conventional PCR for two gene regions, the ITS targeting the genus Bartonella and the specific gltA Bartonella henselae; (B) nested PCR for the ftsZ gene and (C) qualitative real-time PCR for the gltA gene, both B. henselae specific. We obtained 30/500 (6%) DNA detections from the blood samples; 77/500 (15.4%) DNA detections from liquid culture samples and five (1%) samples had DNA detection from both. In total, we detected B. henselae DNA from 102/500 (20.4%) donors. The samples used in this study had already been submitted for Bartonella sp.-DNA detection using only a conventional PCR in liquid culture. Sixteen samples (3.2%) were positive previously, and from these 16 samples, 13 were negative in the new investigation. We concluded that the use of liquid culture combined with different molecular tests increases the possibility of detecting Bartonella sp.-DNA, but the tests do not avoid false-negative results. More than a fifth of blood donors had at least one PCR that detected Bartonella sp.-DNA among the eight molecular reactions performed now (four reactions in whole blood and four in liquid culture). Seven percent had B. henselae-DNA detection for two or more distinct regions. Considering the results obtained previously, the DNA of Bartonella spp. was detected or the agent isolated in 23% of analyzed blood donors. The results establish that the low bacteremia and the fastidious characteristics of the bacterium are challenges to laboratory diagnosis and can make it difficult to confirm the infection in patients with bartonelloses.
Topics: Humans; Bartonella henselae; Blood Donors; Bartonella; Bartonella Infections; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; DNA, Bacterial
PubMed: 37262044
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011336